1881.] Dr. Mitra — Note on a Manuscript of the Bliatti Kdvya. 135 



name of its author. In all the modern MSS. of the work that I have 

 seen the name of the book always appears to be Bhatti ; and the six 

 commentators whose works are accessible to me in Calcutta either call it 

 Bhatti, or " an epic (Makdkdvya) on the history of Rama." Nowhere 

 is any specific name given for the work. European orientalists, com- 

 menting on the work, have invariably used the name Bhatti, without any 

 doubt or qualification. The MS. under notice, however, gives the specific 

 name Rdvana-badha or " the Destruction of Ravana," and in the colophon 

 of the Serampur edition the same name is to be met with, though it is 

 not given on the title-page. The disuse of the specific name can be 

 attributed to one of two causes ; either the author left an only work to 

 posterity, and therefore his name was held enough to indicate his work, 

 as in the cases of S'isupdla-badha and the JEirdtdrjuniya, which are best 

 known by the names of their authors, Magna and Bharavi ; or to the fact 

 of there having been another work of the same name of great renown, the 

 Mdvanabadha of Pravarasena, and the necessity thence arising for a mark 

 of distinction. 



As regards the name of the author, commentators are very much divided 

 in opinion. The MS. under notice makes Bhatti, son of S'ridhara Svami, to 

 be the author. Its words are ^frT ^«^^^fa^Tfa^^«f%ST^IW 



lirft ?;t3w? ^rarra tW^rrarnJI ^r^^% *n« ^Tf^facrr: ^k. \ The 



oldest commentator, Jayamangala, calls him Bhatti, son of Svami. His 

 words are ^j ^tjt TfTti^ff^ fa^: ^ftlrf §t^Tf%^: 3ff%: *ffl*TT?TT 

 ^Tfl^PST^sj ^IcffRJ ^c(fT^ I Harihara, the next in age, follows his pre- 

 decessor verbatim. Pundarikaksha, the 3rd in order of age, in his 

 Kaldpa-dipikd, calls the poet Bhatti, but gives no specific name for the 

 work. The fourth, Kandarpa Chakravarti, calls the work Bhatti, and the 

 author Bhartrihari. His words are ^ rrR^^R^TRT^lT^ ^tf^f^fasTT 

 ■j^^nm^r^^^ I The fifth, Vidyavinoda, makes the author Bhartrihari, 

 son of S'ridhara S'vami: ^m ^rfsRT fte^Tfa^JSTT «<£^iw *;fi«F*j: | 

 And lastly, Bharata Mallika, who lived at Kanchrapara in the Hooghly 

 district about 150 years ago, names Bhartrihari, but does not notice the 

 name of his father : viil^fccrrfi^fa: ^TW^l^' ?TO3fP^ ^IfTC I 



Turning now to the writers of this century, I find the opinion to be 

 equally divided. Colebrooke, in his essay on ' Sanskrit and Prakrit Poetry,' 

 follows the later commentators and says, " The author was Bhartrihari, 

 not, as might be supposed from the name, the celebrated brother of Vikra- 

 maditya, but a grammarian and poet who was son of S'ridhara Svami as we 

 are iniormed by one of his scholiasts, Vidyavinoda. (Essays, vol. II, p. 116). 

 Professor Aufrecht, in his Bodleian Catalogue, speaks of Bhartrihari, 

 " cujm liber yrammaticus, minime vero Bhattikdvyam memoratur" (p. 175 b) 



