History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s64.16
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s64.16
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v1.c6.s64.16.1
The date of Aparārka can be settled within very narrow limits. The Smṛticandrikā⁷⁷¹ in several places quotes the views of Aparārka and sometimes contrasts them with those of the Mit. The Smṛticandrikā refutes the view of Aparārka that the words of Yāj. 'jyeṣṭhaṁ vā śreṣṭhabhāgena' are meant to comprehend all various modes of giving an additional share (*uddhāravibhāga*) to the eldest son on partition mentioned by Manu and others and it follows Aparārka's explanation of 'apratiṣṭhitā' in Gautama's text. It will be shown later on that the Smṛticandrikā must have been composed about 1200 A. D. If the above conclusion that Aparārka knew the Mit. and criticizes it be correct, Aparārka must have flourished after 1100 A. D. and before 1200 A. D. Here epigraphical research comes to our help. We know from the commentary that the author Aparāditya was a Śilāhāra prince of Jīmūtavāhana's family. Inscriptions of the Śilāhāras show that there were three branches of that family, one ruling in the northern Konkan at Thana, the second in the southern Konkan and the third at Kolhapur (vide JBBRAS, vol. XIII p. 10-17 for the three branches). All the branches traced their descent from Jīmūtavāhana. There is only a single inscription of the second branch which had ten kings reigning from about 808 to 1008 A.D. (JBBRAS vol. I, p. 209, E. I. vol. III. p. 292). There is no Aparāditya in this line. Vide E. I. III p. 207, 211 and 213 for several grants of the Kolhapur branch.
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Inscriptions of the northern Śilāhāras speak of two kings who are named Aparādityadeva. In JBBRAS vol. XXI, pp. 505-516 there is a grant dated *śake* 1049 (expired) of Aparādityadeva who donated a village named Vaḍavali in the Thana District to a brāhmaṇa studying the Mādhyandina recension of the Vājasaneya-saṁhita. The king is there styled once as Aparājita and several times as Aparādityadeva. He was son of Anantadeva and grand-son of Nāgārjuna and traced his descent to Jīmūtavāhana, son of Jīmūtaketu, far famed in legend and literature as an exemplar of self-sacrifice⁷⁷², e. g. in the drama Nāgānanda. In this inscription Aparādityadeva is styled *Śilāhāra-narendra* and *Jīmūtavāhanānvayaprasūta* as in the colophon of the commentary on Yāj. (vide note 760 above) and also *Mahāmaṇḍaleśvara* and *Tagarapuraparameśvara*. In the Annals of the Bhandarkar Institute, vol. V, part 2, p. 169 there is a grant made at Somnath-Paṭan in Kathiawar of Vikramsaṁvat 1176 (1119-20 A. D.) while Aparādityadeva of the Śilāhāra family was reigning, almost in the same words as in the grant in JBBRAS vol. XXI p. 505. In I. A. vol. IX, p. 33 there is a grant of Anantadeva father of Aparādityadeva dated in *śake* 1016 (i. e. 1094-5 A. D.). Vide Bombay Gazetteer vol. I. part 2, p. 15 for a list of 20 kings of the northern Konkan branch from 810 to 1260 A. D. *Vide* also an inscription of Aparādityadeva dated śake 1051 (i. e. 1129 A. D.) in Festgabe Dr. Jacobi pp. 189-193 (1926).
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Therefore it appears that the dates of Aparādityadeva I referred to in these grants fall between 1115 and 1130 A. D. It was most probably this king who composed the commentary on Yāj. We know from the Śrīkaṇṭhacarita of Maṅkha that king Aparāditya⁷⁷³ of Konkan sent Tejakaṇṭha on an embassy to an assembly of learned men in Kashmir during the reign of Jayasiṁha of Kashmir (1129 to 1150 A. D.). Aparārka's commentary continues to be the standard law-book used by the *paṇḍits* of Kashmir (Jolly's Tagore Law lectures p. 24). Aparārka's work betrays familiarity with Kashmir. I have already noticed the reference to rājānaka Śitikaṇṭha above. On a passage from Brahma-purāṇa speaking of a śrāddha at Mārtaṇḍapādamūla, Aparārka notes (p. 903) that⁷⁷⁴ the latter is well known in Kashmir. It is there-fore most probable that the work was composed about 1125 and was introduced into Kashmir when an embassy was sent from the Konkan king to Kashmir in the reign of Jayasiṁha. The dates of the second Aparāditya range from 1184 to 1187 A. D. (*Vide* Bombay Gazetteer vol. XIII, part 2, p. 427; JBBRAS vol. XII, pp. 333-335 for an inscription of Aparāditya dated 1109 *śake* i. e. 1187 A. D. (wherein he is styled Koṅkaṇa-cakravarti). It is difficult to hold that this was the author of the commentary on Yāj. The Smṛticandrikā is mentioned by Hemādri and hence could not be later than the first quarter of the thirteenth century.
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Therefore if Aparārka who is frequently cited by the Smṛticandrikā were to be regarded as having flourished about 1187 A. D., very little distance is left between him and the Smṛticandrikā in order that the former should come to be looked upon as an authority by the latter. Therefore it appears probable that Aparārka wrote the com-mentary on Yāj. in the first half of the 12th century (about 1125 A. D.). Vide Tri. cat. Mad. Govt. Mss. for 1919-22, pp. 4853-54, for the Nyāyamuktāvalī of Aparādityadeva, which is a com. on the Nyāyasāra of Bhāsarvajña.