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A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s10: Anthologies

A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s10

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English

Anthologies

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Gnomic and lyric stanzas in a very large number are found in anthologies, in which generally the names of the poets of individual stanzas are also given. Although such statements are not reliable in all cases, still we are able to learn from these collections about a large number of names of otherwise unknown poets, and many stanzas of high poetical value have in this way come down to us.

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Of unknown date is one Vajjālagga, a Prākrit anthology compiled by the Śvetāmbara Jaina Jayavallabha, hence also called Javallaham¹. The work stands out with its collection of stanzas² composed in the Āryā metre in Jaina Māhārāṣṭrī. The stanzas are arranged in chapters (vājjā) according to their subject-matter. Jayavallabha explicitly says that his idea was to collect the sayings of great poets on matters concerning the aims of life (dharma, artha, kāma). Still only one-third of the verses are gnomic and relate to the aims of life, whilst their two-thirds are erotic. The stanzas contain nothing about Jainism.

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¹ A Sanskrit rendering (chāyā) was written by Ratnadeva in the year 1336. Cf. Bhandarkar, Report 1883-84, pp. 17, 324, ff., Pischel, Grammatik der Prākrit Sprachen §§ 12 and 14; Jul. Laber, Über das Vajjālaggam des Jayavallabha, Bonner Diss., Leipzig 1913; H. Jacobi, Bhavisattakaha von Dhaṇavāla, p. 61 f.

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² Probably it had 700 stanzas as in the Sattasaī, although the two available recensions have only 692 and 652 stanzas respectively.

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One of the oldest Sanskrit anthologies has been found in a 12th century manuscript in Nepal. Neither the title of the anthology nor the name of its compiler has come down to us. F. W. Thomas has edited it under the title Kavīndravacanasamuccaya³. One section of the work is devoted to Buddha and one to Avalokiteśvara, whilst the rest of the sections have the same themes as the other anthologies have. None of the large number of poets, whose verses have been included in this collection of 525 stanzas, is of an age posterior to 1000 A.D.

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³ Bibl. Ind., Calcutta 1912, Cf. Haraprasād; Report I, 20. f. The probable title is included in the introductory stanza.

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Saduktikarṇāmṛta or Sūktikarṇāmṛta⁴ "The Ear-nectar of nice Sayings" of Śrīdharadāsa, son of Vaṭudāsa is a very extensive anthology compiled in the year 1205 A.D. Both the father and the son were in the service of Lakṣmaṇasena of Bengal, and the collection contains verses mainly by Bengali poets, e.g. Dhoī and Jayadeva. In the entire work verses of 446 poets have been cited; amongst those of others of Gaṅgādhara, who is known from an inscription dated 1137 A.D. and of five other poets related to him, all of whom lived during 1050 and 1150 A.D.¹. Very important is also the Subhāṣitamuktāvalī. “A Chain of Pearls of Beautiful Sayings”² of Jalhaṇa, [1257 A. D.], who after his father Lakṣmīdeva became the advisor of the South Indian king Kṛṣṇa, who came to the throne in 1247 A.D.³. The anthology, of which there is a bigger recension as well as a smaller one, is arranged systematically. A section deals with poets and poetry and is of special importance for history of literature. Other sections contain stanzas on happiness, wealth, charity, fate, wickedness, wisdom, separation, union, misfortune, love, service to king, politics, etc. One of the most famous anthologies is the Śāraṅgadhara-paddhati⁴ i.e. the Paddhati, “The Guide” (viz. of poetry) of Śāraṅgadhara”, compiled in the year 1363 A.D.⁵. The collection is divided into 163 sections according to the topics that have been treated. Often the names of the poets are appended to the stanzas; not seldom, however, is “somebody” given as the writer. Among these names occur nine names of poetesses. Śāraṅgadhara himself too is a poet, but the stanzas of which he calls himself the author are not significant. Amongst others, the verse No. 3927 is ascribed to Kālidāsa, that is:

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⁴ Published in parts in Bibl. Ind., Calcutta 1912. Aufrecht, ZDMG 36, 1882, 361 ff., 378 ff; 509 ff. gives abundant information with German translation of individual stanzas. Cf. Thomas 7 f. [Edited by Rāmāvatāra Śarmā, with a Critical Introduction in English, by Har Dutt Sharma and an Introduction in Sanskrit by Padma Singh Sharma, POS, p. 10. 15, Lahore 1933. Cf. also Manomohan Chakravarti, JASB, 1906, p. 157-76; De, HSL, p. 413.]

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¹ Cf. Kielhorn, NGGW, 1893, 196 ff.; Ep. Ind. 2, 330 ff.; M. Chakravarti, JASB, N. S., 2, 1906, 174 f.

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² The title occurs also as Sūktimālikā or Sūktimuktāvalī. Cf. Bhandarkar, Report 1887-91, pp. (I)-(LIV); Peterson, JBRAS 17, 1889, 57 ff; Thomas, 13 ff.

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³ Cf. Bhandarkar, Early History of the Dekkan, 2nd ed.; Bombay 1895, 112 f. [De, HSL, p. 414, the name of his father was Lakṣmīdhara. The work has been edited by Embar Krishnamacharya, in GOS, Baroda 1938].

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⁴ Ed. by P. Peterson, BSS, No. 37, 1888. The edition has 4689 stanzas, whilst in the 56th verse their number is given as 6300. Cf. Aufrecht, ZDMG, 25, 1871 455 ff; 27, 1873, 1ff., where many verses have been translated as well: Böhtlingk, ZDMG, 27, 626 ff.

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⁵ Hall, Vāsavadattā, Introd, p. 48. Śāraṅgadhara is the son of Dāmodara and the nephew of Rāghavadeva, who lived in the court of Hammīra of Śākambharā.

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*payodharākāradharo hi kandukaḥ*
*kareṇa roṣādiva tāḍyate muhuḥ* ।
*itīva netrākṛtibhitamutpalaṁ*
*tasyāḥ prasādāya papāta pādayoḥ* ॥

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“The round ball resembles your round breasts,
That you always hit as if out of anger;
Therefore, perhaps on account of fear of your dark eyes,
The lotus has fallen from your breasts down :
It postrates at your feet in order to pacify you.”

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A beautiful stanza attributed to Bilhaṇa preserved in the Paddhati is No. 3427 :

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*aratiriyamupaiti māṁ na nidrā*
*gaṇayati tasyā guṇān mano na doṣam* ।
*vigalati rajanī na saṅgamāśā*
*vrajāti tanustanutāṁ na cānurāgaḥ* ॥
“Anxiety afflicts me, sleep is shunning me from away;
My heart sees her noble qualities and not her errors;
The night is passing away, not my desire to meet her again;
My body is waning, but not the real love.”

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The verse No. 3953 attributed to Bhartṛmeṇṭha—

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*madhu ca vikasitotpalāvataṁsaṁ*
*śaśikarapallavitaṁ ca harmyapṛṣṭham* ।
*madanajanitavibhramā ca kāntā*
*phalamidamarthavatāṁ vibhūtayonyāḥ* ॥
“A cup garlanded with blossoming lotuses,
A balcony illuminated with the beams of moonlight,
Marks of anguish on the face of a woman in love,
More than fortune, blesses it the wealth.”

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A useful maxim found in the Paddhati is:—

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*pratyahaṁ pratyavekṣeta naraścaritamātmanaḥ* ।
*kiṁ nu me paśubhistulyaṁ kiṁ nu satpuruṣairiti* ॥
“Each day a man should examine his conduct and
question himself—
What have I in common with the beasts and what with
noble men.”

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Throughout copious is also the Subhāṣitāvali³ of Vallabhadeva, compiled apparently with utilization of the Śāraṅgadharapaddhati in the 16th century¹. We are not in a position to assert whether a stanza attributed to Vallabhadeva in this work is a composition of the compilor himself or from the pen of some other poet. The anthology contains 3527 stanzas of more than 350 different poets. The stanzas 1119-1127 contain the whole of the canto XI of Maṅkha’s Śrīkaṇṭhacarita, from which further extracts are given in 1444-1448 and 1659-1663. The verses are arranged according to the subject-matter. At least two deserve to be quoted here. One (1353) of them is attributed the Bhāsa, for whom it may be suitable:—

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¹ “So wrote, of course, Kālidāsa, and none after him”—remarks Aufrecht, ZDMG, 27, 17.

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² Translated into German by Aufrecht, ZDMG 37, 59 f.

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³ Ed. by P. Peterson and Pandit Durgā Prasāda, BSS, 1886. Cf. Bühler, Ind. Ant. 15, 1886, 240 ff.; German translation of a number of stanzas by Aufrecht, Ind. Stud. 16, 209 f. and 17. 168 ff. Barth in Revue erit. 1887, 1, p. 421 ff. and C. Cappeller in the Album Kern 239 ff. have contributed towards textual criticism.

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¹ So according to Aufrecht, CC. 555. According to Peterson Subh. 114 he could not have lived before Jainollābadīn (1417-1467). [His name was Kāshmīraka Vallabhadeva and was directly quoted by Sarvānanda in his commentary on the Amarakośa. This has been taken note of by WK, p. 180, and here the time has not been given so definitely, but it has been said that in the form in which the Subhāṣitāvalī is available, it could not have originated earlier than the 15th century, since Jonarāja, who died in 1459, has been quoted above. A compromise has been sought to be made by assuming the presence of its earlier recension from which Sarvānanda might have quoted in 1160 A. D.—De, HSL, p. 413.]

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*duḥkhārte mayi duḥkhitā bhavati yā hṛṣṭe prahṛṣṭā tathā*
*dīne dainyamupaiti roṣaparuṣe pathyaṁ vaco bhāṣate* ।
*kālaṁ vetti kathāḥ karoti nipuṇā matsaṁstave rajyati*
*bhāryā mantrivara sakhā parijanaḥ saikā bahutvaṁ gatā* ॥
“She is deeply aggrieved, when I am in pain,
She becomes happy when I am so,
When I am sad, she gets sadness,
When I am angry and become harsh,
She speaks wholesome words;
She knows the time, she talks cleverly,
And is pleased when I am praised:
Wife, a wise advisor, friend, servant:
She alone, she has become many.”

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A beautiful gnomic stanza of an unknown writer is No. 225:

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*nirguṇeṣvapi sattveṣu dayāṁ kurvanti sādhavaḥ* ।
*nahi saṁharate jyotsnāṁ candraścāṇḍālaveśmani* ॥
“The noble show pity even to the being that has no

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² These words remind of the stanza No. 66 of canto VIII of the Raghuvamśa, where probably Kālidāsa had in mind this verse of Bhāsa.

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quality: the moon does not stop his rays from entering into the house of a Cāṇḍāla."

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There is another Subhāṣitāvalī by one Śrīvara, the son or disciple of Jonarāja (2nd half of the 15th century). This anthology contains stanzas by more than 380 poets¹. Down upto the recent times anthologies have been compiled². The most copious anthology, especially of gnomic stanzas, has been compiled and translated into German by the German scholar Otto Böhtlingk in his volumes of "Indische Sprüche³."

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¹ Bühler, Report 61; Peterson, OC VI, Leiden 1883, III, 2, 339. One more Subhāṣitāvalī of Sumati (?), see Ind. Off. Cat. 1533 f.

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² Worthy of mention are the anthologies Padyāvalī, the anthology devoted to the praise of Kṛṣṇa of Rūpa Gosvāmin (Ind. Off. Cat. 1534 ff.; Pischel, HL 9ff., 25; Thomas 11), probably of the 17th century A.D., [critically edited by S. K. De, Dacca, 1934; cf. also. COJ, II, 277 ff. ], Padyaveṇī of Veṇīdatta, descendant of Nīlakaṇṭha and Padyāmṛtaraṅgiṇī of Bhāskara, son of Āpājibhaṭṭa (Bhandarkar, Report 1887-91, p. (LX) ff.; and Aufrecht, ZDMG 37, 1883, 544ff.; Thomas, 10f.); Hariharasubhāṣita of Harihara (published in Km. 86, 1905), perhaps identical with Harihārāvalī (or Hārāvalī or Subhāṣitahārāvali) of a poet Hari, who was a contemporary of Akbar, the Great, and had assumed the title of "Akbarīyakālidāsa" (see Peterson, Report II, 57 ff.; Krishnamacharya 126; Thomas 14), Padyaracanā of Lakṣmaṇabhaṭṭa Aṅkolakara (published in Km. 89, 1908), Anyoktimuktāvalī of Haṁsavijaya Gaṇi (published in Km. 88, 1907), perhaps an independent work written in 1679, A.D. (see Guérinot, JA, 1909, s. 10, t. XIV, p. 47 ff; No. 1106), Padyasaṁgraha of Kavibhaṭṭakṛtala (Haeberlin 529 ff.). Compiled in the early 19th century are the anthologies Subhāṣitaratnabhāṇḍāgāra of K. T. Parav (Bombay 1886, new edition, 1891; cf. Hertel, WZKM 22, 1908, 119 f. and Subhāṣitaratnākara of K. Bhāṭavadekara (Bombay 1872, new edition 1888). See also Thomas 10 ff. In the addenda W. says that Hariharasubhāṣita and Harihārāvalī are two different works. [See also Sūktimuktāvalī of Harihara, edited by Ramānātha Jhā, Patna, 1949.]

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³ Sanskrit und Deutsch. 2. Aufl., St. Petersburg 1870-73, 3 vols. with 7613 epigrammatic stanzas: Index to it by A. Blau, Leipzig 1893 (AKM IX, 4). A selection from these epigrammatic stanzas has been rendered into German verses by L. Fritze, (Indische Sprüche, Leipzig, Reclam. Univ. Bibl.). The Indian fashion of composing epigrammatic poems was taken over to Pāli literature; see. J. Gray, Ancient Proverbs and Maxims from Burmese Sources or the Nīti Literature of Burma, London 1886.

Cites (11)