History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.303

v7.c89.303

¹³⁰⁹ Vāsantarāja's work on 'śakunas' was published by the Veṅkaṭeśvara Press, Bombay (1906 A D), with the Sanskrit commentary of Bhānucandragaṇi, who was patronized by Emperor Akbar (in the latter half of the 16th century A.D) and a Hindi translation by Sridhar Jatasankara Bhatta. As Vasantarāja is quoted by Adbhuta-sāgara which was begun in śaka 1089 (1167 A. D.), it follows that Vasantarāja would have to be placed before 1100 A. D. He is probably not much earlier than 700 A. D. as he does not appear to have been mentioned by Utpala in his extensive commentaries on Varāhamihira's works Vasantarāja tells us (in the introductory verses 3-5) that he was the son of Vijayarājabhaṭṭa and Sarasvatī and the younger brother of Śivarāja, that he was honoured by king Candradeva (king of Mithilā, acc to the Com.) and composed the work on śakuna at the request of that king. He mentions (I 10) Cūḍāmaṇi, jyotiṣa-śāstra, horā-śāstra and Svarodaya and (in I. 27) informs us that Atri, Garga, Guru, Śukra, Vasiṣṭha, Vyāsa, Kautsa, Bhṛgu and Gautama were the principal ancient sages that declared the knowledge of śakunas for the benefit (of human beings). Cūḍāmaṇi is rather an early work quoted in the Sārāvalī (5. 20 and 39. 8) of Kalyāṇavarman in the same breath with Varāhamihira. The Nimitta attributed to Bhadrabāhu is an extensive work containing 26 chapters and about 1460 verses. It is described in the colophon at the end as 'naigranthe (nairgranthe?) Bhadrabāhuke Nimitte svapnādhyāyaḥ'. The first chapter states that in the time of king Senajit at Rājagṛha in Magadha pupils asked Bhadrabāhu to expound to them the nimittas and he did so. He is styled (in chap. II 1) a *digambara* and the best of *śramaṇas*. The contents of chapters 2 to 26 are; Ulkā (meteors), halo, lightning, evening glow, clouds, winds and hurricanes, rain-fall, gandharvanagara (Fata Morgana), march of kings on invasion, portents affecting the king and the country due to the ripening of actions in former lives (chap XIV has 177 verses on this), grahacāra as declared by Jina (chap XV, 227 verses), the prognosticatory movements of Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Rāhu, Ketu, the Sun and the Moon; grahayuddha; conjunctions of planets; dreams. It appears that the work is later than Varāhamihira. As it is not within the pale of Dharmaśāstra Literature and hardly ever describes a śānti in the way in which the Purāṇas and medieval dharmaśāstra works provide it has been referred to in this work only rarely,