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New light on the Siddhasāra

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

It seldom occurs that a philologist has the opportunity of seeing the results of his labours confirmed or disproved by the discovery of new material. In the field of Oriental studies such events occur relatively less seldom but bear equal testimony to the value of philological studies. What would in many instances have remained conjectures concerning the text of the Siddhasāra, conjectures having various degrees of probability according to the arguments advanced and the material available, have now been proved correct by the discovery of three previously unknown MSS of the Siddhasāra composed by Kavigupta. It could, of course, be claimed that this discovery has rendered superfluous the philological studies hitherto made, but it is in fact precisely these studies which enable us to appreciate the value of the readings provided by the newly dis-covered MSS. Moreover, the confirmation provided by the new discovery shows that the state of knowledge achieved by philological research was in fact a definite advance in our knowledge of the text.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1974

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References

1 In addition I refer to the following editions.

Cpd. = Cakrapānidatta, , CakradtUta, ed. Tripāthī, Jagadīsvaraprasāda, Varanasi, 1961Google Scholar (Haridas Sanskrit Series, 107).

Mādhava. = Mādhavakara, , Mādhava-nidānam, ed. Sudarśanaśāstri, and Yadunandana, , Varanasi, i, 1960 (Kāśī Sanskrit Series, 158); II, Varanasi, 1961Google Scholar.

Vṛ. = Vṛnda, , Vrndamādhavāparanāmā sіddhayogah, ed. Ãpţte, Vināyaka Gaṇeśa, Poona, 1943 (Ānandāśrama Sanskrit Series, 27).Google Scholar

2 See Petech, L., Mediaeval history of Nepal (c. 750–1480), Rome, 1958, 160–9Google Scholar; Regmi, D. R., Medieval Nepal, i, Calcutta, 1965, 425–37Google Scholar.

3 See ‘On Ravigupta's yavas’, 364–5.

4 This passage is also reproduced by Regmi, D. K. in his Medieval Nepal, I, 158Google Scholar.

5 The concluding couplet occurs also at the end of a MS of the Amarakośa listed by Parry, Gambier, op. cit., 10Google Scholar.

6 That is, he finished copying on that day. He seems to have begun on 15 November 1901.

7 for the nimbering of see [9] and [9].

8 See p. 639, n. 7.

9 See p. 639, n. 7.

10 Note that rća here means ‘20’, a usage noted by Jäschke, s.v., but not found in the gram-mars. This usage is found in the Bgyud-bźi and explains why C'soma de Kὅrös and Pozdneyev correctly translated ñ;is-brgya rć-bźi in ch. 3 of the first book of the Rgyud-bźí as 224. This was not understood by Filliozat, J., who translated it as 204 in Schubert, J. and Schneider, U. (ed.), Asiafica: Festschrift Friedrich Weller, Leipzig, 1954, 97Google Scholar.