Visnubhattaviracita Anargharaghavapancika: The Commentary of Visnubhatta on the Anargharaghava of Murari. Critical edition, vol. I: The Commentary of Visnubhatta; vol. II: The Anargharaghava of Murari as Read by Visnubhatta, Notes, Appendices.

AuthorTorzsok, Judit
PositionReviews of Books - Book Review

Visnubhattaviracita Anargharaghavapancika: The Commentary of Visnubhatta on the Anargharaghava of Murari. Critical edition, vol. I: The Commentary of Visnubhatta; vol. II: The Anargharaghava of Murari as Read by Visnubhatta, Notes, Appendices. By HARINARAYANA BHAT. B. R. Publications du Departement d'Indologie, vol. 82.1, 2. Pondichery: INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE PONDICHERY--ECOLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT, 1998. Pp. xlvi + 307, 322.

Although some Western writers on Sanskrit literature have criticized Murari for what they regard as "lack of originality" and "pedantry" (e.g., Keith 1924: 229, Renou 1949: 289: on the problem of reception, see Steiner 1997: 9-10), the Murarinataka has always enjoyed great popularity among connoisseurs of kavya in India, and its author was rightly praised in a popular verse as the poet who truly knows what is the essence of the art of speech and poetry: devim vacam upasate hi bahavah saram tu sarasvatam janite nitaram asau gurukulaklisto murarih kavih/abdhir langhita eva vanarabhataih kim tv asya gambhiratam apatalanimagnapivaratanur janati manthacalah // "Many have worshiped the muse of speech, but truly the bard Murari, who studied long and hard within his teacher's house, knows the essence of the muses. The soldier apes of Rama crossed the sea, but it is the churning-mountain, whose mighty frame stretched down to Hades, that knows the sea's full depth" (translation by Ingalls 1965: 441). The verse is cited in Vidyakara's Subhasitaratnakosa n. 1701, on p. 1 of the Bombay edition of the Anargharaghava, as well as by Harinarayana Bhat on p. x of his introduction. It is therefore to the delight of all those who enjoy reading Sanskrit kavya and natya that a new edition of this drama is available, that it is accompanied by a very useful and learned commentary, and that for the first time a critical edition of the commentary and of the drama as read by the commentator has been prepared.

Among the numerous old commentaries on the Anargharaghava, five have been edited in three different volumes, of which only one is available in most libraries outside South India. The first edition was made in 1887 (Bombay, Kavyamala, vol. 5) and contains a commentary by Rucipati. It was followed by the edition of Laksmanasuri's commentary (Tanjore, 1900), which was probably reprinted in 1920, but is very difficult to obtain, and has not been used or mentioned in the present edition. (For details, see Steiner 2001: 91 and 1997: 11.) The third edition (Mysore, 1905), which includes three commentaries, contains the editio princeps of Visnubhatta's commentary. This volume, printed in Telugu script, was an important source for the present edition, especially because the manuscript on which the text of the Pancika was based can no longer be found. Mention must also be made of two modern commentaries: one by Jivananda Vidyasagara (Calcutta: Vacaspatya Press, 3rd ed. 1936, as cited by Ingalls 1965: 449) and another by Ramacandra Misra (Varanasi: Caukhamba Vidyabhavana Samskrta Granthamala, vol. 47, 1960). The latter also includes a Hindi translation dubbed as commentary in the title. Of these two modern commentaries only the latter has been consulted for...

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