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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s3.t6: 7. Someśvara's Mānasollāsa

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s3.t6

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7. Someśvara's Mānasollāsa

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An important work of the early twelfth century remains to be added.

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The *Mānasollāsa* (The Hilarity of Mind) has a peculiar title. But it is a veritable work of *Nītiśāstra* like the *Yukti kalpataru* and the *Śukranīti*. The special importance of this treatise consists in its being what may be described almost as a dated book, about whose author's personality and home-surroundings there does not appear to be any doubt for the time being. The author *pro forma* is King Someśvara Bhūlokamalla of the Western Chālukya dynasty which was established at Kalyānī in 973 by Taila or Tailapa II. Someśvara reigned from 1127 to 1138. He is the son of his illustrious father Vikramankā Vikramāditya VI., whose reign lasted for half a century (1076-1126). Vikramānka is the hero of Bilhaṇa's *Vikramānkacharita* like Harṣavardhana of Bāṇa's *Harṣacharita*. It is, again, at Vikramānka's court that Vijnāneśvara, the immortal jurist of India, composed his world-renowned *Mitākṣarā* commentary of Yājnavalkya about 1100.²⁴ The *Mānasollāsa* was composed in 1131 (p. vi).

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²⁴ The text of *Mānasollāsa* Vol. I. has been edited by G. K. Shrigondekar for the Gaekward Oriental Series, Baroda, 1925. See the section on Vijnāneśvara; also Smith: *Oxford History of India* (1919) p. 202.

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The *Mānasollāsa* is described by the author as a *śāstram viśvopakārakam*, i.e., a science calculated to promote the welfare of the world (*śloka* 9). It is, besides, a *śikṣakaḥ sarvavastūnām* (teacher of all topics) and a *jagadāchāryapustakaḥ* (book for teaching the world). The encyclopaedic scope and the ambitious range of the contents are apparent from these short descriptions.

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The treatise is complete in five *prakaraṇas* or chapters, each containing twenty *adhyāyas* or sections. Vol. I., as published, offers the first two chapters only.

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Chapter I. has the following twenty contents :
1. The giving up of untruth, 2. The giving up of inflicting loss on others, 3. The giving up of illicit intercourse, 4. The giving up of eating or drinking the things that should not be taken, 5. The giving up of jealousy, 6. The giving up of association with the fallen, 7. The giving up of anger, 8. The giving up of self-praise, 9. Gifts, 10. Sweet words, 11. Sacrifices, temples, images etc., 12. Devotion to gods (verse 106 teaches that one should give up insulting or running down the gods of others), 13. Cows and Brāhmaṇas, 14. *Śrāddha* ceremony for the dead parents, 15. Entertainment of guests, 16. Honour to teachers, 17. Physical mortifications, 18. Bathing in sacred rivers, 19. Maintenance of the poor, orphans, diseased, friends and servants, 20. Protection of those who seek asylum.

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There are altogether 308 *ślokas* in this chapter. It looks like a string of "platitudes, platitudes all the way." But such moralizings belong to the irreducible minimum in the training of the *vijigīṣu*. It is interesting and somewhat curious that the author has introduced 152 *ślokas* in section 19 to give a lecture on diseases and their treatment (*vaidyakam*). Half the chapter is then entirely an extract or digest in verse from a treatise of *Āyurveda*. This is followed by 11 lines in prose on *Auṣadhaparyāya* (medicines). The relevancy of this sudden infliction of a medical lecture is hardly apparent. It comes in because the author has four verses on the *dīna* (poor), *anātha* (orphan), and *ārtta* (distressed and sick). We are perhaps to understand that medical help or relief is an important form of the king's services to these classes of needy persons. *Vaidyas* (medical men) are to be appointed by him and they are to be sent out with diverse medicines on a mission of free medical service (139-140).

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Chapter II. has 1300 verses and is divided into the following twenty sections: 1. The King, 2. The Officers, 3. The Territory (*Rāṣṭra*), 4. The Treasure, 5. The Forts, 6. The Army, 7. The Friend, 8. The Force of the King, 9. The Force of the Plan (*Mantra*), 10. The Force of Enterprise (*Utsāha*), 11. Treaties, 12. War, 13. Expeditions, 14. Siege, 15. Asylum, 16. Duplicity, 17. Friendly Attitude, 18. Separation, 19. Gifts, 20. Punishment.

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The section on expeditions contains references to all sorts of auspicious and inauspicious occasions. Some prose *mantrams* (hymns) are introduced in connection with the removal of evils and portents. The influence of astrology, sorcery, *Tantra*, and the Atharvavedic tradition is manifest in such sections.

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The king, Someśvara, is himself supposed to be the author of the book. In the colophons at the end of the two chapters we are left in no doubt as to the royal authorship. In verses 9 and 10 also the king is described in so many words as the maker of the treatise. But as the editor of the text points out, the verse 371 introduces a simile in which Someśvara is mentioned by name as the standard of comparison; and we can easily agree with the editor that "no author would be guilty of so flagrant piece of vanity." In other words, the author must be somebody other than Someśvara, say, a scholar at his court. It is interesting that we are landed once more in the Kauṭalya question. The reference to Kauṭalya (*iti Kauṭalyah*) in the Kauṭalyan *Arthaśāstra* must be taken to point to the authorship of somebody other than Kauṭalya (*Supra*, pp. 218, 306, 355).

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There is a word *gālidānam* in verse 38. One can easily suspect it as a colloquial Bengali term for reproach or abusive language. The word is not unknown in colloquial modern Hindi. But one wonders as to how it could find a place in a Sanskrit work of the early twelfth century in a Deccani (Maratha) atmosphere.²⁵

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²⁵ Prof. Vidhu Sekhara Sastri has found the word in the *Rājatarangiṇī* VI. 157; *Bhartrihari*, III, 133, *Vodhasāra Layayoga*, 14.

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