History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.304
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.304
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A. D.) II. 13 pp. 102-112, Adbhutasāgara (which profusely quotes Vasantarāja's work), Rājanītiprakāśa (pp. 345-347). Among these Vasantarāja-śakuna is the most comprehensive work on the subject of śakunas and has been quoted by the Adbhutasāgara and other later works. A brief account of the work would not be out of place and is given here. It is divided into twenty *vargas*¹³¹⁰ (sections) and contains in different metres 1525 verses (as stated in *varga* II. 12). It states: it would declare the śakunas¹³¹¹ indicated in this world by groups of beings viz. bipeds (men and birds), quadrupeds (elephants, horses &c.), six-footed (bees), eight-footed (the mythical animal śarabha), beings having many feet (such as a scorpion) and having no feet (such as snakes): that is called *śakuna* which is the means of arriving at definite knowledge about auspicious or inauspicious consequences viz. movement (to the left, to the right &c.), the sounds or cries (of birds and beasts), their glances and activities. A person who is an expert in śakuna-śāstra, knowing that a certain object of his would involve difficulties or would be without difficulties, abandons it or begins it respectively. The work boasts that if it be well studied it requires no expounder, no mathematics and that by merely studying it, the reader acquires pleasant knowledge that yields rewards. The work repeats the view of Varāhamihira (in Bṛhat-saṁhitā 85.5 and on p. 558 above in n.
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827) that śakunas indicate to men, whether going on a journey or residing in their houses, how the consequences of actions done in past lives will certainly bear fruit. He answers the objection that, if no man can escape his fate and has to reap the rewards of his past actions, this śāstra is of no use, by saying that the actions of former lives bear fruit only at certain times and places and a man can avoid the results of past actions just as he avoids snakes, fire, poison, thorns and other (dangerous) things and that if fate alone be the deciding factor what is the use of the science of politics and government by following which wise kings protect the world with great effort? Learned men declare that *daiva* (fate) is only the *karma* produced (accumulated) in past lives; the *karma* in past lives was acquired by human effort; how can one then say that *daiva* does not depend on human effort? The subjects in the 20 *vargas* and the verses allotted to each by Vasantarāja may be briefly set down at one place: 1. Śāstrapratiṣṭhā (establishment of the śakunaśāstra by reasoning, verses 31); 2. Śāstrasangraha, 13 verses (the statement of the contents of chapters and verses); 3. abhyarcana, verses 31 (how to honour the guru who expounds the śakunaśāstra and to offer worship to the birds and the eight lokapālas according to the procedure laid down by sages); 4.
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miśraka, verses 72 (general directions such as that the person out of several with reference to whom a śakuna may be examined up to what distance a śakuna operates, if many beings exhibit prognostications which should be followed, what birds and animals are powerful in what directions as to śakunas; *śānta*, *dagdha* and other directions); 5. śubhāśubha (auspicious and inauspicious things and sights) verses 16; 6. nareṅgita, verses 50 (the appearance, dress, gestures, speech, throbbing of the limbs of men and women that are auspicious or inauspicious); 7. śyāmāruta (chirpings of the bird called śyāmā, female cuckoo) 400 verses (worship of two images of the bird practically as a deity, the auspicious or inauspicious sounds, activities, motions with reference to invasion, coronation, peace and war, victory, marriage, rainfall, crops); 8. pakṣivicāra, verses 57 (prognostications from the cries, sight, glances, movements of several birds such as swan, crane, cakravāka, parrot, *mainā*, peacock, kapiñjala, vulture, hawk, owl, pigeon, cock); 9. Cāśa (the blue jay) verses 5; 10. khañjana (wagtail), verses 27; 11. karāpikā (a kind of crane), verses 11; 12. kākaruta (the cawing of crows) verses 181; 13. Piṅgalikāruta (cries of an owl-like bird), verses 200, 14. catuṣpada (four-footed animals like elephant, horse, ass, bull, buffalo, cow and she-buffalo, goat and sheep, camel, musk-rat, rat, monkey, cat, jackal), verses 50; 15. six-footed, many footed and snakes (verses 13); 16.
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Pipīlikā (ants), verses 15; 17. Palli-vicāra (lizard also called kuḍyamatsya and gṛhagodhīkā), verses 32; 18. Śvacestita (barking and other actions of dogs), verses 222; 19. Śivāruta (howling of female jackals), verses 90; 20. Śāstraprabhāva (the importance of this śakunaśāstra), verses 24.