A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s9.34

v3.c35.s9.34

As yet it has not been possible to arrive at a decision with regard to the problem of the poet Bhartṛhari being identical with the grammarian Bhartṛhari, the author of a commentary on the Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali and of the Vākyapadīya, a treatise on the philosophy of language. About this scholar Bhartṛhari the Chinese pilgrim I-tsing says that he was a faithful follower of Buddhism and became famous in the whole of India and died “forty years ago”. Since I-tsing wrote his report in 691 A.D., Bhartṛhari must have died in about 651 A.D². I-tsing, however, says nothing as to whether this grammarian was also the writer of the aphoristical stanzas, but he narrates a noteworthy story: He became a monk seven times in succession and returned to hearth each time. Once when he had already overcome his sensuous desires and had retired into a cloister he had to ask a young man to keep a vehicle ready for him outside the cloister and then he felt that even then he was not fit to become a monk. I-tsing has quoted also a verse in which Bhartṛhari rebukes himself on account of his inability to withstand the glamour of the world. On the basis of this report Max Müller¹ has presumed that the grammarian Bhartṛhari might have been also the poet of our śatakas. The fact is that the story about our poet narrated by I-tsing fits him very well. But on the other hand, it is remarkable that the Chinese pilgrim, who speaks so much about this man, has not directly mentioned the work on account of which his name has become famous in the whole of India, even though the grammatical and philosophical works mentioned by him have become almost extinct. Moreover, Bhartṛhari in the śatakas is not a Buddhist, but a declared devotee of Śiva in the Vedāntist sense². Now it is possible that Bhartṛhari was a Śaiva Brāhmaṇa, who was at first a court-poet³ and householder, became an adherent of Śaiva Vedānta, and lastly embraced Buddhism⁴. In this case we must assume that I-tsing did not either mention the śatakas or would not like to say anything about them, because they were written by the poet before he had embraced Buddhism. But this sort of hypothesis does not appear very probable after we take into consideration the very story told by I-tsing. In case it cannot be admitted that in the very indefinite statement of I-tsing on the works of Bhartṛhari there is also an allusion to the śatakas⁵, all that remains is to admit that I-tsing had merely heard about the works of the grammarian Bhartṛhari¹ and that the stories that were told him about Bhartṛhari related to a poet of this very name, who was the author of the śatakas. In that case this poet must have lived considerably before 650 A.D.².