111. Kamalākarabhatta

Volume I: Part II pp. 925–936

111. Kamalākarabhatta

111. Kamalākarabhatta

Kamalākarabhatta was one of the foremost scions of the Bhaṭṭa family. He was a grandson of the famous Nārāyaṇa-bhaṭṭa and a son of Rāmākṛṣṇabhaṭṭa. He was one of three brothers, the eldest being Dinākara alias Divākara¹ and the youngest was Lakṣmaṇabhaṭṭa,² who studied under Kamalā-karabhaṭṭa. Kamalākarabhatta's father Rāmākṛṣṇa also was a very³ learned man and a profound mimāṁsaka and his mother Umā immolated herself as a satī. Kamalākara was a man of profound erudition and composed works on almost every śāstra. In some of his own works there are high eulogies of his learn-ing and proficiency in Tarka, Nyāya, grammar, mimāṁsā (in both the schools of Kumārila and Prabhākara), Vedānta, Poetics, dharmaśāstra and Vedic sacrificeṣ⁴ He composed more than twenty-two workṣ At the end of his Vivādatāṇḍava it is said that he composed the Nirnayasindhu, a commentary on the Vartika ( of Kumarila ), a work on the mimamsa ( sastratattva ) and a series of 20 other workṣ⁵ At the end of a mṣ of the Santiratna in the Bhau Daji collection there is a list of 22 works of his out of which the Nirnayasindhu is said to have been the first.⁶ More than half of these works are concerned with topics Kamalākarabhatta of Dharmaśāstra, viz. the Nirṇayasindhu, the Dānakamalākara, Śāntiratna, Pūrtakamalākara, Vratakamalākara, Prāyaścittaratna, Vivādāṇḍava, Bahvṛcāhnika, Gotrapradarpaṇa, Karmavipakāratna, Śūdrakamalākara, Sarvatīrthavidhi. The Śūdrakamalākara, the Vivādāṇḍava and the Nirṇayasindhu are the most famous of his works on dharmaśāstra. Brief references may be made here to some of the works of Kamalākarabhatta other than the three mentioned above. It appears from the introductory verses of the Vratakamalākara that Kamalākara intended to compose a digest on dharma called Dharmatattva in ten paricchedas¹⁴²⁵ and not only carried it out but added some more works on dharma. It will be noticed that nine out of these 10 sections are enumerated under the same names at the end of the Śāntiratna quoted above, the one not named being the section on ācāra. Burnell mentions a work called Ācāradīpa by Kamalākara on daily duties and on the same page notices another work on āhnika by Kamalākara.¹⁴²⁶ It is difficult to say whether both are names of the same work. It is not unlikely that the ācāra section of the digest Dharmatattva is the same as the Bahvṛcāhnika enumerated at the end of the Śāntiratna. There is a mṣ of the Bahvṛcāhnika at Bikaner.¹⁴²⁷ It deals with daily duties commencing with rising from one’s bed at the brāhma muhūrta. In this work Kamalākarabhatta refers to his own Prāyaścittaratna, and to the Madanapārijāta, Madanaratna, Mādhava and Śūlapāṇi. The Pūrtakamalākāra⁷ was an extensive work and dealt with the dedication of tanks, wells, trees and gardens to the public, the dedication of Aśvattha tree and five sacred trees, dedication and laying the foundation of public buildings, consecration of sacred images, of Śālagrāma, of temples and flags, repairing of images, accidental breaking of temples, consecration of Vināyaka, pacification of planets, coronation of kings and emperorṣ In this work he mentions his own Dānakamalākara.

The Śāntiratna or Śāntikamalākāra is a huge work.⁸

It deals with various rites for propitiating Vināyaka, the nine planets, and for averting the consequences of portentous occur- rences and evil omens, birth on such constellations as mūla, the observances known as Ekādaśīnī, Laghurudra, Mahārudra, Śata- caṇḍī &c. He refers to his own Nirṇayasindhu in this work.

The Nirṇayasindhu ( on pp. 293, 300-301 ) mentions Pravara- darpaṇa as his work on Gotras and Pravaraṣ

In the Bombay Asiatic Society’s Library there is a mṣ of his Saṁskāra-prayogakamalākāra which appears to be over and above the 22 works enumerated above.⁹ He starts with an enumera- tion of the 48 saṁskāras mentioned by Gautama, deals with the several saṁskāras of puṁsavana, jātakarama, marriage &c., and with utsarjana and upākarma, propitiatory rites on the first appearance of menses, the Aṣṭakā śrāddha &c.

His Tattva-kamalākāra appears to have been a work of consi- derable interest dealing with the bearing of the doctrines and maxims of the Mīmāṁsā system on ritual and dharmaśāstra.¹⁰ A mṣ of it is dated saṁvat 1695 Caitra śukla 4 Friday ( i. e. 9th March 1638 A. D.). Tattvakamlākāra and Mīmāṁsā-kautūhala are two separate works, incomplete msṣ of which are in possession of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vide ‘ Indian Culture ’ Vol. V. 111. Kamalākarabhatta

pp. 211–214 (paper by Prof. Chintaharan Chakravarti). The first is briefly mentioned in Mitra’s Notices, vol. III. p. 335 and it is stated in ‘Indian Culture’ Vol. V. that it comments on some selected sūtras of the Pūrvamīmāṁsā systeṃ The Mimāṁsā-kau-tūhala gives a brief outline of the principal doctrines of the Pūrvamīmāṁsā systeṃ Of the Mantrakamalākara a mṣ (complete in 126 leaves) is in the possession of the A. S. of Bengal. The work was composed for the benefit of Ananta, son of Kamalākarabhatta.

For the Prāyaścittaratna, vide Bühler’s report, 3, p. 108.

I was able to secure a mṣ of the Vivādātaṇḍava from the Mandlik collection in the Fergusson College at Poona. That work closely resembles in method and matter the Vyavahāra-mayūkha of Kamalākara’s cousin Nīlakaṇṭha, the section on ordeals being almost the same in both. It treats of the follow-ing subjects: the sabhā; members of the sabhā; judge, amātya; the scribe and the accountant; conflict of smṛtis; the plaint, the reply, the modes of proof, viz. documents, witnesses, possession; modes of punishment; the principal and secondary sons; the enumeration of the eighteen titles of law; partition of heritage and detailed description of the other titleṣ Like the Vyavahāra-mayūkha, the Vivādātaṇḍava quotes the Madanaratna as fre-quently as ( or perhaps more frequently than) the mitākṣarā. The other writers and works quoted are noted below.¹¹ As it mentions several works of his own, viz. Nirnayasindhu, the Dānakamalā-kara, the Prāyaścittaratna and the Śūdradharma (i. e. Śūdra-kamalākara ), the Vivādātaṇḍava was one of his latest workṣ On several points he differs from his own cousin Nīlakaṇṭha. For example, he prefers the mother to the father as an heir and does not give the sister a high place among the gotraja heirs as Nīlakaṇṭha doeṣ The Vivādātaṇḍava has been frequently noticed in judicial decisionṣ¹²

The Vivādātaṇḍava was published in “Our Heritage” Vol. VII part 2 pp. 1–23 edited by Dr. Herambanath Chaṭṭopādhyaya. The work is a small one. About half of its 23 pages contain foot- notes covering half or more of each page. Pages 2-5 have only 1/3 page for the text. Its first verse is quoted below¹³ The Śūdrakamalākara (also called Śūdra-dharmatattva or Śūdradharmatattvaprakāśa) has been printed in Bombay several times (with Marathi translation). I used the Nīrnayasāgara edi- tion of 1895. In this work he refers to his own Dānakamalākara, Pūrtakamalākara, Prāyaścittaratna and Nīrnayasindhu. Out of about two hundred authors and works quoted therein, prominent ones are noted below.¹⁴ This work is a standard treatise on the duties and religious observances of Śūdraṣ

Kamalākarabhatta was at least prepared to say, following his father Rāmākṛṣṇabhaṭṭa, that in spite of the statement in some Purāṇas that in the Kaliyuga only two varṇas viz. the first (Brāhmaṇas) and the last (viz. Śūdras) exist, Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas that have given up their proper religious and other activities do exist here and there.¹⁵

He first starts with the discussion that the Śūdra is not authorised to study the Vedas, but that he can listen to the recita- tion by Brāhmaṇas of smṛtis and purāṇas and religious rites are to be performed for Śūdras with Purāṇic mantraṣ Then the follo- wing subjects are dealt with :- worship of Viṣṇu and other deities by Śūdras and the observances of vratas and fasts by them; Śūdra can make gifts of works of public utility (pūrta); Śūdra can adopt a son; the conflicting views as to the number of saṁskāras for a Śūdra, most authors holding that he is entitled to ten saṁskāras (without Vedic mantras), viz. garbhādhāna, puṁsavana, sīmanta, jātakarama, nāmakaraṇa, śiśuniṣkramaṇa, annaprāśana, cūḍākarma, karṇavedha, and vivāha; the five great 111. Kamalākarabhatta daily yajñas were to be performed for the śūdra according to the Vājasaneyasākhā;¹⁶ śrāddhas for Śūdra (to be performed with uncooked food); actions prescribed and forbidden in the case of Śūdras; the details of various rites and saṃskāras of Śūdras; the daily duties of Śūdras; impurity on birth and death; rites of wives and widows; persons of mixed castes who have to follow the rules laid down for Śūdras; rules for those who are born of pratiloma connections; about Kāyasthaṣ

The Nirṇayasindhu or Nirṇayakamalākara is the most famous of Kamalākara's workṣ It is a monument of erudition, industry and lucidity. It has been judicially referred to as a work of authority.¹⁷ I have used the Nirṇayasāgara edition of 1905 (with Marathi translation). In the whole range of nibandhakāras there is hardly any other writer, except perhaps Nīlakaṇṭha and Mitramiśra, who lays under contribution as many works as Kamalākara doeṣ In the Nirṇayasindhu about one hundred smṛtis and over three hundred nibandhakāras are mentioned by name. In the introductory verses he expressly says that he pondered over the views of Hemādri, Mādhava and other learned writerṣ The work is divided into three paricchedaṣ The following is a very concise statement of the contents of this voluminous work. The principal subject is to give decisive opinions as to the proper times for various religious acts; the various views about the year being solar, lunar, sidereal etc., months of four kinds, lunar, solar etc., saṃkrānti rites and gifts; intercalary month; kṣayamāsa; about tithis, śuddha and viddhā (combined with another tithi on same day); vratas; the various vratas and festivals during the twelve months of the year; the saṃskāras from garbhādhāna onwards; sapiṇḍa relationship; consecration of images; auspicious times (muhūrtas) for various actions such as sowing operations, buying horses and cattle &c.; śrāddha; ...impurities on birth and death; rites after death, rites for satī; samnyāsa.

The time when Kamalākara flourished can be determined with great accuracy. We saw above that the Nirṇayasindhu was one of his earliest works and that it is referred to in several works of hiṣ According to a verse at the end of the Nirṇayasindhu the work was composed in 1668 of the Vikrama era on the 14th day of the dark half of the month of Māgha when cyclic year was Raudra (i. e. on the 20th February 1612 A. D.). In a mṣ noticed by M. M. Haraprasāda Śāstri the same verse is read differently, so as to refer the composition to Vikrama saṁvat 1678; but it is clearly a copyist's error or misreading, since the cyclic year Raudra cannot tally with Vikrama 1678¹⁸. We saw above that a mṣ of the Tattvakamalākara is dated 1638 A. D. Kamalākara was a voluminous writer and therefore we shall be not far wrong if his literary activity be assigned to the period between 1610 A. D and 1640 A. D. This date is corroborated in several wayṣ His grandfather Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa was born in 1513 A. D. and he quotes in his Nirṇayasindhu the Toḍārānanda compiled in the last quarter of the 16th century.

The Toḍārānanda is quoted by the Nirṇayasindhu on p. 26, on p. 96 (on Nṛsiṁhajayanti) and on p. 104 (the Tithisaukhya of Toḍārānanda is quoted in Cāturmāsyānirṇaya).

Though he expressly states in the Introductory verse 7 of the Nirṇayasindhu that he bestowed proper thought on the views of Hemādri and Mādhava and quotes both of them hundreds of times, he differs, in some places, from both of them or one of the two. On the pāraṇā (breaking the fast) on Śivarātri there are contradictory texts and both Hemādri and Mādhava evolve the same order out of contradictions, but Kamalākara does not accept that vyavasthā (vide pp. 224-25 of the Nirṇaya-sindhu).

Another interesting remark of Kamalākara shows that he probably introduced changes long after the Nirṇayasindhu was composed in 1612 A. D. In the Nirṇayasindhu (3rd pari. pūr- vārdha p. 250 on the subject of adoption ) he holds that there is ownership in the father as regards his son and pompously declares that there is no ownership in one's son, is a fool.¹⁹ The Nirṇayasindhu was Kamalākara's first work. The latter was the 2nd son of Rāmakṛṣṇa, who was the eldest son of Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa, while Nīlakaṇṭha was the youngest of four brothers, who were the sons of Śaṅkarabhaṭṭa, the 2nd son of Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa. So though both were first cousins, it is very likely that Nīlakaṇṭha, author of the twelve Mayūkhās, was junior to Kamalākara by some years at least and could not have been the author of a work before 1612 A. D., the date of the Nirṇayasindhu, the first work of Kamalākara.

He desired his work to be encyclopaedic and therefore, he remarks that the rites called Śatacandī, and Sahasracandī are not described in the great works ( on Dharmaśāstra ), but as those rites had become popular among people, he describes them in his section on Navarātra pp. 185–86 ).²⁰ He quotes the Tristhālisetu of Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa dozens of times (e. g. pp. 16, 89, 99. 151, 208 209, 214, 274 &c.) and also the Prayo- garatna of the same, though not so frequently ( as on pp. 53, 259, 266, 267). He quotes Raghunandana's work frequently e. g. Tithitattva ( vol. I. pp. 135–36 ) quotes four verses from Liṅga- purāṇa ( Aśvine paurṇamāsyām tu &c.) which are quoted in the Nirṇayasindhu (p. 191, 2nd pariccheda ). Similarly, about the amāvāsyā of Aśvina the Nirṇayasindhu (p. 200) mentions a passage quoted in Tithitattva²¹ ( Jīvananda, vol. I p. 185 ). On p. 82 he refers to the Koṅkaṇas²² that rely on certain passages (about 7 verses) as contained in the Varāhapurāṇa about the Jayantīs (tithis) of the ten avatāras of Viṣṇu (viz. from Matsya to Kalkin) and remarks that they are obligatory on the devotees of the respective ten avatāras and optional for otherṣ Here the word Kauṇkaṇas refers probably to learned men from Koṅkaṇa residing in Benares in Kamalākara's times or to authors from Koṅkaṇa (probably the latter).

The Nirṇayasindhu frequently mentions an author called Nārāyaṇa-vṛtti-kṛt. (e. g. pp. 37, 55, 58, 116, 153, 191, 291 &c.) on the Āśvalāyana Śrauta and Gṛhya sūtraṣ He is to be distinguished from Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa (the grandfather of Kamalākara).

He notes that the works of Gauda authors,²³ such as the Tithitattva, hold that, after an invitation to officiate at a śrāddha is given and accepted, if there is death of a relative of the person inviting a brāhmaṇa or a relative of the invitee dies, both are not affected by āśauca, since the Viṣṇusmṛti provides that there is no āśauca for the performer (of śrāddha) nor for the officiating priest after the invitation to officiate is given and accepteḍ The Nirṇayasindhu remarks that the text applies to marriage and not to śrāddhas, since the word 'śrāddha' does not occur thereiṇ 111. Kamalākarabhatta Kamalākara sometimes differs from his great ancestor Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa. For example, on p. 325 he quotes from the Prayogaratna a verse ‘ If the newly married bride makes her first entrance into her husband’s house on the first, third or fifth day or the 2nd or 4th day from the day of her marriage, it is auspicious, but if she enters on the 6th day after her marriage she would incur sorrow in the form of separation or disease’. The Nirṇaya- sindhu avers that a passage in support of this has to be found ( i. e. the assertoin made is baseless ).²⁴ On p. 337 ( of N. S. ) he further points out that in the Tristhalisetu his venerable grandfather stated that śūdras have no right to instal images of deities like Viṣṇu or Śaṅkara and relied on a passage of the Skandapurāṇa quoted in the Brahman-Nāradīya but he ( Kamalā- kara ) says ‘ we hold that, on account of other passages from the Devīpurāṇa quoted in the Kṛtyakalpataru, in the case of śūdras there is an option as to establishing images of Viṣṇu or Śaṅkara.²⁵ Vide p. 553, where he differs from Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa about suicide by a brāhmaṇa in certain circumstances and p. 554 where Mādhava, Aparārka and Hemādri approve of it for certain persons suffering from incurable diseaseṣ

In some matters the N. S. takes a position far in advance of what some orthodox brāhmaṇas in modern times would like to recommend or follow; e. g. on p. 304 he provides that when a girl reaches the age of puberty, one should not wait to consider whether Jupiter’s position is favourable but she should be got married even when Jupiter is in the 8th place from the rāśi at her birth ( after performing Bṛhaspati-śānti thrice ).

There are some interesting observations he makeṣ For example, if a man does not know his gotra and pravara he quotes Satyāṣāḍha to the effect that he should take the gotra and pravara of his purohita or ācārya; if he does not know them he should adopt the gotra and pravara of some one else or he should adopt Jamadagni as his gotra.²⁶

People in the medieval times seem to have been frightened by the very names of some of the nakṣatras on which children were borṇ It is stated in the Brahmayāmala quoted in the Nirṇayasindhu that the effects of the birth of a child on one of the ten parts of the Jyeṣṭhā-nakṣatra are respectively as follows:— (1) death of the child's mother's mother, (2) death of the child's mother's father, (3) death of the mother's brother, (4) death of the child's mother, (5) death of the child itself, (6) destruction of the gotra (of the child), (7) destruction of the families of the child's mother and father, (8) death of the elder brother (of the child), (9) death of the father-in-law of the child, (10) death of relationṣ Similarly, very dire results of the birth of a child on Mūla nakṣatra are stated; viz. a child born in the first two ghaṭikās of Mūla should be abandoned or the father of the child should not see its face for eight years; birth of a child born on the four quarters of the Mūla nakṣatra portends respectively death of the father, death of the mother, loss of father's wealth and the 4th quarter is auspiciouṣ

The Nirṇayasindhu is a very large work and is divided into three Paricchedas (sections). The first section (pp. 1-77) deals with Kāla divisions viz. Abda (year), ayana (half year), ṛtu (seasons), māsa (months), divasa (days); the year is of five sorts acc. to Mādhava viz. Sāvana, Saura, Cāndra, Nakṣatra and Bārhaspatya; the year for Dharmaśāstra purposes, acc. to Hemādri, is only of three kinds (the last two not being required in Dharmaśāstra); months are twelve; the cāndra years have respectively sixty names Prabhava, Vibhava &c.; Malamāsa, Kṣayamāsa; tithis are either śuddhā (that is not mixed with or joined to another tithi on the same day) or viddhā (joined to another tithi on the same day); vratas; installations of images;