History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s90.20

v1.c6.s90.20

The Vaijayantī or Keśava-Vaijayantī is a famous work of his. It is a commentary on the Viṣṇudharma-sūtra. Extracts from it have been published by Dr. Jolly in his edition of Viṣṇu. This is an extensive work. The following account is taken from the ms. in the India Office Library (vide cat. p. 393 No. 1342 for a brief description). In this work he refers to a Brāhmaṇa dynasty of the Vasiṣṭha gotra at Vijayapura (Vijayanagara?) in Karṇāṭa country, in which was born Koṇḍapanāyaka, whose son was Keśavanāyaka, whose son was Ananta *alias* Vāvarasa, whose sons were Keśava and Rudra. Keśava, son of Koṇḍapa, seems to have gone to Benares with his sons and grand-sons and made extensive gifts of all kinds.¹⁰⁵² There is a hyperbolical description of his great gifts (*mahādānas* including *tulā*, i. e. weighing against gold or silver). Keśavanāyaka enjoined upon Nandapaṇḍita the task of composing a commentary on the Viṣṇusmṛti.¹⁰⁵³ In the colophons at the end of the chapters of Viṣṇu, Koṇḍapanāyaka is styled Mahārājādhirāja and it is said that Nandapaṇḍita was encouraged in the task by Keśavanāyaka *alias* Tammasānāyaka. At the end of chapter 101, we are told that Keśavanāyaka, Nandapaṇḍita's patron, secured *mokṣa* by breathing his last on the Maṇikarṇikā in Benares.¹⁰⁵⁴ There are six verses at the end one of which says that in the Kali age there is no one more liberal than Vāvarasa (a son of Keśavanāyaka) and no one more learned than Nandapaṇḍita.¹⁰⁵⁵ As he wrote on the encouragement of Keśava, the commentary is also styled Keśava-Vaijayantī. Among the authors and works mentioned in this commentary are Devasvāmī, Budhasmṛti, Bhavadeva, Mādhavācārya, Vācaspati, Sarvajña, Subodhinī (com. on the Mit.), Haradatta, Hemādri. In the Vaijayantī he refers to no less than six of his works viz: the Vidvan-manoharā, the Pramitākṣarā, the Śrāddhakalpalatā, the Śuddhicandrikā, the Dattaka-mīmāṁsā (vide note 1040 above). But in the Dattaka-mīmāṁsā itself he refers to his Keśava-Vaijayantī as already composed.¹⁰⁵⁶ Therefore it follows that both works were probably being composed at the same time. The Vaijayantī is one of the leading authorities of the Benares School of modern Hindu Law.¹⁰⁵⁷