History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c89.304.1

v7.c89.304.1

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.