History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s78.52

v1.c6.s78.52

A great deal has been written concerning the date of Madanapāla. The introductory verses giving the genealogy of Madanapāla must be held to be genuine, as they occur in the ancient ms. (D. C. No. 131 of A 1882-83) of Mahārṇava copied in saṁvat 1645 (1588-89 A. D.) and in the still older ms. (dated *saṁvat* 1459) of the Sūrya-siddhānta-viveka. As the Madanapārijāta mentions the Smṛticandrikā and Hemādri's Caturvarga-cintāmaṇi not only in the introductory verses of the Madanapārijāta but in the body of the Madanapārijāta and the Mahārṇava, Madanapāla must be certainly later than 1300 A. D. As the Smṛtikaumudī mentions the Vedāntakalpataru that was composed in the time of the Yādava princes Kṛṣṇa and Mahādeva, it follows that the work was composed after the third quarter of the 13th century. The Madanapārijāta is quoted in the Nṛsiṁhaprasāda, the Antyeṣṭipaddhati of Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa, the Āhnikatattva (pp. 326, 397, 479, vol. I) of Raghunandana, the Śrāddhakriyākaumudī (pp. 327, 489) of Govindānanda. Therefore it is certainly earlier than 1500 A. D. And if we rely on the date when the ms. of the Sūryasiddhāntaviveka was copied (viz. 1402-3 A. D.), it follows that Madanapāla flourished before 1400 A. D. The Madanavinodanighaṇṭu⁹⁴² gives the date of its composition as ‘Brahmajagad-yugendu’ of the Vikrama era, *māgha* 6 of the bright half and Monday (i. e. 8-1-1375 A. D.). This was interpreted by Sarvadhikari (Tagore Law Lectures pp. 297-298, ed. of 1922) as equal to 1231 of the Vikrama era (i. e. 1175 A. D.). He held that ‘yuga’ meant two. But herein he was entirely wrong. Besides, the date proposed by him is impossible, since it would lead us to hold that Madanapāla wrote in 1175 A. D. and since, as we saw above, he could not have flourished before 1300 A. D. It has been already shown (pp. 309, 369) that the view of Sarvadhikari and others that the Pārijāta mentioned by Caṇḍeśvara is the same as Madanapārijāta is quite wrong. Astronomical usage as found in Bhāskara and other writers always interprets *yuga*⁹⁴³ as meaning four (and not two) and hence the date of the composition of the Madanavinodanighaṇṭu is 1431 of the Vikrama era (i. e. 1375 A. D.). Vide Jolly's Tagore Law lectures pp. 14-15, Dr. Bhandarkar’s Report for 1883-84 pp. 47 and 347 and S. B. E. vol. 25, p. cxxv n. 2. A ms. of the Sūryasiddhāntaviveka, which is one of the last (if not the last) works of Madanapāla is dated in 1402-3 A. D. Hence the literary activity of Madanapāla and of his protegee, Viśveśvarabhaṭṭa, must be placed between 1360-1390 A. D.