96. Vidyāpati

Volume I: Part II pp. 810–814

96. Vidyāpati

96. Vidyāpati

In the first edition of the History of Dharmaśāstra, Vidyāpati was not dealt with in the body of the text, but some information about him and his works was given in the list of authors on pp. 739–40. It is thought advisable that a separate section be de- voted to Vidyāpati in this revised editioṇ Dr. Umesh Mishra published in Hindi¹²³⁵ a life of Vidyāpati; he gives the pedigree which shows that he was fourth in descent from Dhīreśvara, uncle of Cāṇḍeśvara. That work deals at some length with the lineage of Vidyāpati, gives a brief account of the kings of Mithilā, the times of Vidyāpati, his works his padas, (songs) his learning and similar matterṣ There is difference of opinion about the date of his birth among scholars but there appears to be agreement about the date of his death viz. 1448 A. D. His birth place was Bisapī, a village in Madhubani (lit. forest of honey) on the eastern side of north Bihar. The ‘Love Songs of Vidyāpati’, translated into English from Maithilī by Mr. Deben Bhattacharya and edited with an Introduction, Notes and comments by W. G. Archer, were published in London in 1963 by George Allen and Unwin (Ltḍ). It was preceded by the publication of the Songs of Vidyāpati rendered into English by Shri Subhadra Jha in 1954, published by Messrs Motilal Banarsidas (of Benares).

This edition of 1954 contains an introduction of 193 pages, Maithilī text of 212 songs with an English rendering on the opposite page of the song and mentions the rāgas in which they are to be reciteḍ Vidyāpati is famous for his songs; he is also credited with the authorship of twelve works in Sanskrit (vide note below).¹²³⁶ In the edition by Shri Subhadra Jha the Introduction on p. 18 sets out a pedigree of the poet Vidyāpati viz. his father was Gaņa-pati, whose father was Jayadatta, son of Dhīreśvara. Most of the dates referring to Vidyāpati are in the Lakṣmaṇasena era. No one knows for certain when this era was starteḍ Dr. Rajendralal Mitra held that the La-saṃ (i. e. Lakṣmaṇasena era ) starts from 1106 A. D. Kielhorn held that the La-Saṃ started in 1119-20 of the Christian era. Several scholars regard the Bisāpi plate as spuriouṣ Further, several scholars say that the La-Saṃ started from the date of the birth of Lakṣmaṇasena. The Sena kings are called Brahma-khatriyaṣ For the Inscriptions of Sena Kings, vide E. I. Vol. 20 Appendix Noṣ 1682–1693 and ‘Indian Culture’ vol. IV pp. 22 ff. Shri. G. C. Basu ( of Dacca University ) in ‘New Indian Antiquary’ ( Vol. VII pp. 49–57 ) mentions a hitherto unknown work of Vidyāpati viz. Vyādibhakṭitarangiṇī ( lit. a river of devotion to the serpent goddess Manasā). It is a Tāntrika work. The Mṣ refers to the Durgābhaktitarangiṇī as his own work.

He was a voluminous and versatile writer. A few words may be said here about some of the other workṣ

Vidyāpati's name is as great in Bengal as in Mithilā and it is curious that in Bengal Vidyāpati is believed to have been a great Vaiṣṇava, while in Mithilā he was held to be a Śaiva.¹ The poems of Vidyāpati were edited and published by Khagendranath Mitra. Dr. Bimanbihari Majumdar has completely over-hauled and re-arranged the work and has published it in Devanāgarī characters along with a very elaborate and informative introduc- tion of 132 pages ( in 1953 ). There is great difference of opinion about what padas were the genuine works of Vidyāpati. In this latest edition the editor had to reject 203 padas, which had been wrongly ascribed to Vidyāpati by the editor Babu Nagendranatha Gupta ( vide J. of G. J. R. Institute Vol. X. pp. 175–196 Review ).

For Vidyāpati’s Puruṣaparīkṣā, vide No. 1922 in Mitra’s Notices ( vol. V pp. 244–46 ). The work was written under the orders of King Śivasimha, son of King Devasimha, of Mithilā. It has four paricchedas and contains over forty stories about heroism, benevolence, dayā (kindness), theft, cowardice, a lazy man, a clever man &c. The Puruṣaparīkṣā was rendered into English by Sir George A. Grierson and was published in 1935 by the Royal Asiatic Society, Londoṇ The translation contains 44 tales in all, most of them being arranged in groups e. g. there are at first four tales of heroic men and four tales about men of the opposite type. Grierson published a paper on ‘Vidyāpati and his contemporaries’ in I. A. Vol. XIV ( 1885 ) pp. 182–196. On pp. 190–191 of that volume the original Sanskrit of the Bisapī plate and its translation into English are set out. It is dated in several eras, san 807, sainvat 1455 and śake 1321 ( and L. Saṁ. 283, Śrāvaṇa suidi 7 ). The Mṣ of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa copied by Vidyāpati bears the date ‘La. Saṁ. 349’ says Dr. Jayakānta, while others read that date as La. Saṁ. 349 or 389 ( vide History of Maithilī Literature, vol. I. p. 185.

He may be held to have flourished between 1360–1448 A. D. and should be placed just about the times of Śūlapāṇi. Vide Journal of Department of Letters for 1929, vol. 16, for an informing paper on hiṃ

The Gaṅgāvākyāvalī of Queen Viśvāsadevi was published at Calcutta in 1940 in a sumptuous edition by Dr. J. B. Chaudhuri Ph.D. ( London ) with an Introduction of 64 pages, text ( in Sanskrit pp. 107–314 ), with numerous appendices such as No. I of pp. 1–96 on references, various readings and notes, No. II remarks on the quotations in the Gaṅgāvākyāvalī ( pp. 97–101 ), No. III ( Description of the Msṣ of the Gaṅgāvākyāvalī pp. 102-4), No. IV (Remarks on the authorship of the Gaṅgāvākyāvalī, pp. 105-108 ), No. V pp. 109-120, on the royal family of Mithilā (15 in all) and some well-known smārtas that have quoted the Gaṅgāvākyāvalī (pp. 131-136 ), Index of verses and prose passages quoted in the work (pp. 1-26 ) and names of the sources from which they are quoteḍ Index No. 5 on the maxims quoted (p. 54 ) No. VI list of works quoted by the authoress that are not extant or rare or fragmentary (p. 55); abbreviations (pp. 1-37), Bibliography (pp. 1-21), General Index (pp. 22-40), additions and corrections (pp. 41-43 ).

The two verses at the end of the work are quoted below.² They are clear on the point that the work was composed by the Queen and that all that Vidyāpati did was that he studied certain works and made her work look faultless by providing it with authorities from several nibandhas that he studieḍ It is clear that the work was that of the Queen and Vidyāpati only supplied some textual authorities in support of her propositionṣ

An excellent edition of the Gaṅgāvākyāvalī of Queen Viśvā- sadevi, Queen of Padmasimha (along with the Dvārakāpaṭṭala by Binabai) was published as volumes III and IV (as part of the Contribution of Women to Sanskrit Literature) by Dr. J. B. Chaudhuri in 1940 at Calcutta, with a Foreword by Dr. C. Otto Blagden and with five Appendices one of which contained some remarks on the authorship of the work (pp. 105-108) and on well-known Smārta writers who quoted the Gaṅgāvākyāvalī. Viśvāsadevi was the wife of Padmasimha, son of Śīvasimha, king of Mithilā.³ Padmasimha became the king of Mithilā on Śīvasimha's death and on the death of Padmasimha Viśvāsadevī ascended the throne. The work has 29 chapters dealing with such matters as remembering the Ganges, uttering its name, pilgrimage to it, hearing the eulogy of the Ganges, seeing it, bowing down to it, śrāddha to be performed on it, bathing in it, offering libations ( _tarpana_ ), counting beads ( _japa_ ), gifts on it and offering _piṇḍas_ and residing on it; prāyaścittas, voluntary or natural death ( _mṛtyu_ ), putting the bones of the dead in the waters, baths at the confluence of the Ganges and the Sea &c.

For the ‘Vibhāgasāra’ of Vidyāpati, vide Mitra's Notices Vol. VI pp. 67-8. It deals with the meaning of ‘Dāya’, nature of partition, what is not liable to partition, disquisition on Strī-dhana ( woman's property ) and its partition among heirs, division of wealth concealed, but later found partition among those who are born of persons that had partitioned; description of the twelve kinds of sons and partition among them; heirs to person dying without male issue; partition of wealth among persons who had reunited after partitioṇ

The Dānavākyāvalī is described ( on p. 352 of Dr. R. G. Bhandarkar's Report on the search for Sanskrit Msṣ for the year 1883–84) as composed by Dhīramatī, queen of king Darpanārāyaṇa of Mithilā, who was herself learned and who permitted the very clever Vidyāpati to render it faultless with authoritative textṣ⁴

One of Vidyāpati's works is Bhūparikramaṇa of which a complete copy exists in the Msṣ Library of the Sanskrit College of Calcutta. Some account of this work is given by Śrī Dinesh Chandra Bhattacharya in J. G. J. R. I. Vol. VI at pp. 241-247. That work shows that Vidyāpati had śākta leaningṣ His work seems to have been called Dvaitanirnaya (or Āgamadvaitānirṇaya).

(Continued from the previous page) verse ‘सज्ज्ञामाझृणसीमभीमसद्वशतस्यानुज + + + दानस्वलितकल्पवृक्ष- महिमासौं पञ्चसिंहो नृपः॥ It is quite possible that the mṣ presented the words तस्यात्मजः (and were read by the editor as तस्यानुज + + + )