105. Dharmatattvakalānidhi or Prithvīcandrodaya Vyavahāraprakāsha

Volume I: Part II pp. 879–882

105. Dharmatattvakalānidhi or Prithvīcandrodaya Vyavahāraprakāsha

105. Dharmatattvakalānidhi or Pṛthvīcandrodādaya- Vyavahāraprakāśa.

This work was not dealt with in the first edition published in 1930 but brief references were made to it in Appendix A pp. 566 and 584 and Appendix B p. 712. Since then a small portion of the very large digest on Dharmaśāstra named above has been published ( in 1962 ) as Vol. No. 21 of the Bhāratīya-vidyā series edited by Mr. J. H. Dave, M. A. LL. B., Advocate ( Supreme Court of India ). Now that some portion is avail- able in print it is briefly noticed here. The work means ‘The Moon ( Kalānidhi ) of the essence of Dharma, or also Pṛthvī- candrodaya ‘the rise of Pṛthvīcandra’. This last was a king. The volume now published contains a portion of Vyavahāra- prakāśa, one of the several parts of a huge digest on dharma. The Introduction ( on pp. v-vi ) states that only seven parts of the work are available ( each in a single mṣ ) at different places viz. three parts called prakāśas on Vyavahāra, Vrata and Samaya are available in the Anup Sanskrit Library; there is a mṣ of Śrāddha-prakāśa in the Bombay University’s library. A mṣ of the Āśauca-prakāśa is available in the Library of the Baroda Oriental Institute, a mṣ of Gṛhasthaprakāśa exists in Sarasvatī- Bhavan Library of Benares and a mṣ of Ācāra-prakāśa is available in the Adyar Library, Madraṣ It is not possible to say how many parts were included or intended to be included in the whole work. But Kalānidhi means ‘the Moon’ and as the Moon is supposed to have sixteen kalās ( kāla tu ṣoḍaśo bhāgaḥ - Amarakośa), it was probably intended to spread the digest over sixteen partṣ The section on Vyavahāra is called Vyavahāraprakāśa and is divided into 14 ullāsas (lit. ‘flashes’ or coruscations). Mr. Dave publishes ten out of the 14 ullāsas and is going to publish the remaining four in the near future.

The Vyavahāraprakāśa (which is the 7th part of the pro- posed work) deals with judicial procedure as well as with substantive law. The present volume contains the whole of judicial procedure (technically called Vyavahāra) in 202 pages and some titles out of the 18 titles of law (in pp. 203–331 ), viz. from rṇādāna to boundary disputeṣ

The present work is beautifully printed by the Nirṇayasa- gar Press (Bombay) and contains (besides the introduction, (pp. v–xi), the Index of subjects (xiii–xvi), Sanskrit text (pp. 1–331), Index of the verses (p. 333–357, in all over 2000 verses) and an Index of the names of authors and works (pp. 358–359) which inadvertently omits the names of Garuḍapurāṇa (p. 271), Govindarāja (p. 132), Cāṇḍeśvara (p. 161), Bhavadeva (p. 116) and all passages that are ascribed to the joint author- ship of Śańkhallikhita in the text as those of Likhita.

The very first verse claims that king Pṛthvicandra personally looked into the causes of the citizens day after day along with learned brāhmaṇas and the judge and states that he begins the composition of a work on vyavahṛti (vyavahāra, including both substantive and procedural law).

More than 50 authorities are cited in the portion publisheḍ Among the sūtrakāras on Dharma, Viṣṇu is most frequently quoted, next come Gautama and Śańkhalikhita. Among metrical Smṛtis Manu is quoted about a hundred times and Yājñavalkya about 120 timeṣ Among the other metrical Smṛtis Kātyāyana, Nārada and Bṛhaspati are all quoted more than 160 times each. Vyāsa is quoted 40 times and Pītāmaha is quoted not only on ordeals but also on several other matterṣ The Rāmāyaṇa is quoted twice and the Mahābhārata thrice. Many Purāṇas such as Agni, Kālikā, Brahma, Bhavisya, Matsya, Mārkaṇḍeya are quoted but not at great length. Among digests and writers on Dharmaśāstra are mentioned Kalpataru (several times), Caṇḍe- śvara (on p. 161), Candrikākāra (i. e. author of Smṛticandrikā) 105. Prthvicandrodaya-Vyavaharaprakāsa

once on p. 55, Pārijāta (several times), Vijñānayogīśvara (on pp. 7, 249), Sarvajña-nārāyaṇa, commentator of Manu VIII. 53–54, (on p. 63) and on Manu VIII. 41, 42, 46, (on p. 33), Halāyudha on p. 161 and 284 (on Nārada's verses).

From the colophons at the end of certain sections (Ullāsas) of the portion printed, it appears that the author was the son of Nagamalla, was a great devotee of Viṣṇu and had such birudas as Kalikāla-karṇa, Pratāpa-laṅkeśvara, Ripujayasimha. On p. 279 he refers to Brahmacāriprakāśa as already composeḍ

This Vyavahāraprakāśa, when completely printed, would be recognised as a treatise on law and procedure applicable to Hindus in Northern India. The quotations from authorities are ample, to the point, lucid and not burdened with lengthy discussions on Mīmāṁsā. It keeps throughout a practical end in view viz. to explain the law in easy and clear language. Not only the Vyavahāraprakāśa, but other sections on non-legal topics have been quoted extensively by writers on Dharmaśāstra from the 16th century onwards such as the Nīrṇayasindhu (which quotes it hundreds of times), the Mayūkhas of Nīlakaṇṭha who quotes it in Ācāra-ṃ, Samaya ṃ and Śrāddha-ṃ and otherṣ

His date can be settled without much difficulty. Mr. Dave points out (in Intro. p. VIII) that on the last leaf of a mṣ of the Vyavahāraprakāśa the scribe (named Śrīvāstavya Kāyastha) states that he finished the copying of the work on the 15th of the bright half of Phālguna on Wednesday in Saṁvat 1530 i. e. (1474 A. D.) in the city called Sehunda when king Pṛthvicandra was reigning.

Therefore it follows that the work was composed sometime before 1474 A. D. This date is corroborated by the fact that it cites the Smṛticandrikā and Cāṇḍeśvara and so it must be placed later than about 1375 A. D. Mr. Dave states that Sehunda is now a town in Bundelkhanḍ It is a remarkable coincidence that three great digests on Dharmaśāstra were composed in Bundelkhanda, viz. the Pṛthivīcandrodaya, the Bhāgavantabhās-kara of Nīlakaṇṭha in twelve parts called Mayūkhas (rays) and the Vīramitrodaya of Mitramiśra (the last two in the first half of the 17th century).

H. D.—111 Prof. Velankar's Catalogue of the Sanskrit msṣ in the Bombay University No. 251 (p. 52) is a mṣ of the Śrāddha-prakāśa, in 24 ullāsas, but it breaks off in the midst of Saṁpātaśrāddha.

In A. vṣ B. (54 Boṃ L. R. pp. 725-754) Mr. Justice Tendulkar had to deal with a case in which a suit had been brought by the husband against the wife for nullity of marriage on the ground that the woman was impotent at the time of marriage and continued to be so thereafter and a decree for nullity of marriage was passeḍ Many authorities from original Sanskrit texts were cited in the arguments and in the learned judgment (pp. 743-754). In the same volume on pp. 115-119, Dr. Derrett deals with the question in dispute and relevant Sanskrit texts and Mr. Dave, Advocate in the case of A. vṣ B. cited above, contributed a paper in the Journal portion (pp. 25-32) of 55 Boṃ L. R. The above mentioned case is a con- verse of the case Ratan Moni vṣ Nagendra Narayan (1945) 1 Cal. 407.