Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

A History of Sanskrit Literature c9.s3: 3. The Evidence of Patañjali and Piṅgala

A History of Sanskrit Literature c9.s3

Language
English

3. The Evidence of Patañjali and Piṅgala

c9.s3.1

Direct and conclusive evidence of the production of secular Sanskrit literature before 150 B. C. is afforded by the testimony of the *Mahābhāṣya*.² Much earlier evidence from the point of view of grammar would be available, if we could believe the assertion³ of Rājaçekhara—perhaps the dramatist—that Pāṇini was the author not merely of the grammar but also of the *Jāmbavatīvijaya*; that epic and apparently another, the *Pātālavijaya*, are ascribed to him by anthologies which cite verses from them. The fact, however, that grammatical errors occur in a verse from the latter work renders the ascription implausible, even if epic excuse can be alleged, and we may reasonably accept the existence of two or more Pāṇinis, despite the rarity of the name.

c9.s3.2

² Cf. Weber, IS. xiii. 356 ff., 477 ff.; Kielhorn, IA. xiv. 326 f.; Bühler, *Die indischen Inschriften*, p. 72; Bhandarkar, IA. iii. 14.

c9.s3.3

³ See Thomas, *Kavīndravacanasamuccaya*, pp. 51 ff.

c9.s3.4

The testimony of the *Mahābhāṣya*, however, is quite clear, and its value is all the greater because it is given incidentally and by accident in the discussion of disputed rules of the master. Patañjali, of course, knows the Bhāratan epic, but he refers also to dramatic recitals of epic legends—perhaps to actual dramatic performances—and the topics mentioned include the slaying by Kṛṣṇa of his wicked uncle Kaṅsa and the binding of Bali by the god Viṣṇu. We are told of rhapsodes who tell their tales until the day dawns, and stories were current which dealt with the legends of Yavaprīta, Yayāti, Priyaṅgu, Vāsavadattā, Sumanottarā, and Bhīmaratha. A Vāraruca Kāvya is actually mentioned, though unfortunately we know no more of it. We have, however, invaluable help in appreciating the growth of Kāvya in the incidental citation of stanzas clearly taken from poems of the classical type. Many are tantalizing in their brevity; we hear of a maiden bought with a price who was dearer to her lord than his life (*sā hi tasya dhanakrītā prāṇebhyo 'pi garīyasī*). The verse *varatanu sampravadanti kukkuṭāḥ*, 'O fair one, the cocks proclaim together', has afforded later authors an opportunity of exhibiting skill in filling up the missing three verses (*samasyāpūraṇa*).¹ Erotic verse is attested also by *priyāṁ mayūraḥ pratinarnṛtīti*, 'The peacock danceth towards his beloved', perhaps also by *ā vanāntād odakāntāt priyam pantham anuvrajet*, 'Let her follow the wanderer she loveth to the end of the woods, to the end of the waters'. Epic or panegyric is found in the address *prathate tvayā patimatī pṛthivī*, 'The earth with thee as lord maketh true its name as wide'; so also *asidvitīyo 'nusāra Pāṇḍavam*, 'With sword as mate he attacked Pāṇḍu's son', *jaghāna Kaṁsaṁ kila Vāsudevaḥ*, 'Vāsudeva slew Kaṁsa.' Brief as it is, there is pathos in

c9.s3.5

¹ See Chap. IX, § 1.

c9.s3.6

*yasmin daça sahasrāṇi putre jāte gavāṁ dadau*
*brāhmaṇebhyaḥ priyākhyebhyaḥ so 'yam uñchena jīvati.*

c9.s3.7

'On his scanty gleaning now he liveth, he for whose birth were given ten thousand kine to the Brahmins who brought the good tidings.'

c9.s3.8

Gnomic poetry is also strongly represented:

c9.s3.9

*tapaḥ çrutaṁ ca yoniç cety etad brāhmaṇakārakam*
*tapaḥçrutābhyāṁ yo hīno jātibrāhmaṇa eva saḥ.*

c9.s3.10

'Asceticism, learning, birth, these make the Brahmin; he who lacks asceticism and learning is a Brahmin by birth alone.' Or again, *bubhukṣitaṁ na pratibhāti kiṁcit*, 'Nothing seems right to a hungry man.' Solomon's maxim regarding the education of children has a worthy parallel:

c9.s3.11

*sāmṛtaiḥ pāṇibhir ghnanti guravo na viṣokṣitaiḥ*
*lāḍanāçrayiṇo*² *doṣās tāḍanāçrayiṇo guṇāḥ.*

c9.s3.12

² Cf. the forms in *Festschrift Wackernagel*, p. 303.

c9.s3.13

‘Fraught with life, not with poison, are the blows that teachers give; vice grows by indulgence, virtue prospers by reproof.’ The inevitability of death is recorded:

c9.s3.14

*ahar ahar nayamāno gāṁ açvam puruṣam paçum*
*Vaivasvato na tṛpyati surayā iva durmadī.*

c9.s3.15

‘Though day by day he takes his toll in cattle, horses, men, and beasts, Vivasvant’s son is sated never, as a drunkard is never wearied of brandy.’ A maxim of political wisdom may be seen in

c9.s3.16

*kṣeme subhikṣe kṛtasaṁcayāni: purāṇi rājñāṁ vinayanti kopam.*

c9.s3.17

‘Citadels well stored in peace and abundance calm the wrath of kings.’

c9.s3.18

Noteworthy also is the fact that in the scanty number of verses there occur specimens of such ornate metres as the Mālatī, the Praharṣiṇī, the Pramitākṣarā, and the Vasantatilaka, beside the normal Çloka and Triṣṭubh. These new metres lead us into a different sphere from the Vedic metres, and striking light on this development is afforded by the metre of the Kārikās,¹ mostly, if not all, written probably by predecessors of Patañjali, which deal with disputed points of grammar. Among these are besides the Çloka and Vaktra, Indravajrā, Upajāti, Çālinī, Vaṅçasthā, all later usual, and the much less common metres, Samānī, consisting of four verses each of four trochees, Vidyunmālā, similarly made up of spondees, the anapaestic Toṭaka, and the Dodhaka, in which the verse has three dactyls and a spondee. This richness and elaboration of metre, in striking contrast to the comparative freedom of Vedic and epic literature, must certainly have arisen from poetical use; it cannot have been invented for grammatical memorial verses, for which a simple metre might better suffice. The names Toṭaka and Dodhaka have been suspected of Prācritic origin, and the latter of ultimate Greek origin, but these are unproved hypotheses without literary or other support.

c9.s3.19

¹ Cf. Kielhorn, IA. xv. 229 ff.; Jacobi, *Festschrift Wackernagel*, p. 127.

c9.s3.20

In addition to the clear indications thus given of the existence of epic, lyric, and gnomic verse, we may deduce from other hints the existence of the material whence later developed the beastfable. We have allusions¹ to such proverbial tales as that of the goat and the razor (*ajāḳr̥pāṇīya*), of the crow and the palm fruit (*kākatālīya*), and to the hereditary enmity of the snake and the ichneumon, and of the crow and the owl, later famous as the theme of a book of the *Pañcatantra*.

c9.s3.21

¹ *Mahābhāṣya*, ii. 1. 3; v. 3. 106; *IS.* xiii. 486.

c9.s3.22

Corroboration of the evidence of Patañjali can be obtained from the *Chandassūtra* of Piṅgala, which ranks as a Vedāṅga but is mainly devoted to the exposition of secular prosody. Piṅgala ranks as an ancient sage, being sometimes identified with Patañjali; the aspect of his work suggests considerable age, and many of the metres which he describes are certainly not derived from the Kāvya literature which has come down to us. They suggest a period of transition in which the authors of the erotic lyric² were trying experiment after experiment in metrical effect. The names of the metres can often most plausibly be explained as epithets of the beloved; the stanzas may have been so styled because the word in question occurred in them. Thus we have the metre Kāntotpīḍā, the plague of her lovers, Kuṭilagati, she of crooked gait, Cañcalākṣikā, she of the glancing eyes, Tanumadhyā, she of the slender waist, Cāruhāsinī, the sweetsmiling one, and Vasantatilakā, the pride of spring. Other names suggest poetic observation of animal life; thus we have Açvalalita, the gait of the horse, Kokilaka, the cry of the cuckoo, Siṅhonnatā, tall as a lion, Çārdūlavikrīḍita, the tiger's play. The plant world gives others as Mañjarī, the cluster, Mālā, the garland. That a strong school of lyric poetry existed about the Christian era and probably much earlier we cannot seriously doubt; to its influence we may with reason ascribe the appearance and bloom of the Māhārāṣṭrī lyric about A.D. 200.

c9.s3.23

² Jacobi, *ZDMG.* xxxviii. 615 f.

Linked texts (5)