Mallinatha A Study

The book, now being printed and published, entitled Malinatha – A study is a good critique on Mallinatha's works. Mallinatha, whom each and every sanskritist knows, is a renowned commentator on pancamahakavyas viz. Raghuvamsa, Kumarasambhava, Kiratarjuniya, Sisupalavadha and Naisadhiyacarita. The above Kavyas must be learnt at the beginning itself by the person who wants to learn the Sanskrit, the beautiful, ancient and divine language. The above tests must be studied with the help of Mallinatha's commentaries only. So, these commentaries are quite indispensable ones. To enjoy the beauty and greatness of Sanskrit texts, Mallinatha's commentary is the best resort.

In addition to the above poems, Mallinatha annotated many texts such as Bhattikavya, Meghaduta, Ekavali, Kavyadarsa, Amarakosa, Tarkikaraksa etc. He produced independent works also, viz. Udarakavya, Raghuviracarita, Vaisyavamsasudhakara and the like. His commentaries are most essential, because they contain all the information required for full and complete understanding of the texts. Any body by studying Kavyas etc. in the light of his commentary will certainly become a good Sanskrit Scholar.

Prof. N.C.V. Narasimhacharya, Special Officer, Sri Bhagavata Project, has written the above book on Mallinatha giving us much unique information of the commentator and commentary. Sri Narasimhacharya is a profound scholar, recipient of President's Certificate of Honour (1977) and has earned many other titles and honours to his credit. Basing on his erudite scholarship Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha conferred Vacaspati (Honouris causa) on him. He was also honoured with Pratibhapuraskara by Potti Sriramulu Telugu University, Hyderabad. He is much conversant with five languages viz. Sanskrit, English, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. He has very good command over all these languages and he writers articles in all of them.

Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha is very much greatful to Prof. N.C.V. Narasimhacharya for having consented to publish this book. I thank the members of the staff of the Research Department of this Vidyapeetha without the best efforts of whom the present edition would not have come so superbly. We are sure that the readers will be very much benefited by this book.

Introduction

If we read the following lines we can well understand the greatness of Sanskrit, the most ancient and divine language Samskrtam nama daivi vak anvakhyata maharsibhih.

"The Sanskrit Language what ever be its antiquity, is of wonderful structure, more perfect them Greek, more copious than Latin and exquisitely refined than either." – William John.

"If we wish to learn the beginning of our culture, if we wish to understand the Indo European Culture, we must go to India where the oldest literature of Indo European people is preserved."

No work of world literature has ever produced so profound an influence on the life and though of the people as the Ramayana.

"The complete alphabet which was evidently worked out by learned Brahmins on phonetic principles must have existed by 500 BC. We Europeans on the other hand 500 years later and in a scientific age still employ an alphabet which is not only inadequate to present all the sounds of our language, but even preserve the random order in which vowels and consonants are jumbled up as they were in the Greek adaptation of the primitive Semitic arrangement of 3000 years ago."

"The very essence of Sanskrit culture is in its quality and harmony and unity. Other cultures have preserved this quality for brief period. Europe knew it in the golden days of the Catholic Church for the first three or four centuries of the present millennium. But India knows it for vastly large period of time. Take any product of Sanskrit Literature and you will see the quality"

"If Columbus had not lived, America would still have been discovered. If Vascoda-Gama had not rounded the cape and opened sea route to India some one else would have done it. But if Kalidasa had not lived there would have been no Abhijnana Sakuntala."
-Sri S. Radhakrishnan

"Reverence for the past which is a necessary element in patriotism springs from the proper understanding of the past and for a proper understanding of India's past the knowledge of Sanskrit is essential."

"Sanskrit I conceive to be the general store house from which strength and beauty may be drawn for the vernacular language."
-Prof. Herianna

"Sanskrit I conceive to be the general store house from which strength and beauty may be drawn for the vernacular language."
-Captain Candy

"For all the old European languages the Sanskrit language is the mother."
-W.E. Hoisson.

Such a sweet and beautiful Sanskrit Language must be learnt to make one's life fruitful. As the method is in practice among Sanskrit lovers, one must first of all study beginning from poems – the Raghuvamsa, Kumarasambhava, Kiratarjuniya, Sisupalavadha, Naisadhiyacarita and Meghaduta taking the help of the commentary of Mallinatha. This is the easiest way to attain mastery over Sanskrit Language. This practice is in vogue in the Sanskrit World.

Mallinatha is a commentator Par Excellence. He wrote commentaries on all poems mentioned above. The Sanskrit language being a classical one, but not a vernacular, must be learnt through commentary only. He strictly adhered to the maxim where the definition of commentary or the vyakhyana seems as follows:

(Splitting of the words, meaning of the words, splitting of the compound words as per the grammatical rules, syntactical explanation and raising doubts and clearing them). This is the first criterion, which made him a popular commentator.

Kolacala or Kolacelama Mallinatha hailed from Andhra Brahmin community. He was an erudite scholar in all the Vedas, Vedangas, Puranas and almost all Sastras. Though there are a good number of commentaries on the above poems written by others, such as Vallabha, Hemadri, Caritravardhana, Dinakara, Sumativijaya, Vijayagani, Dharmameru and the like; but all these were relegated to the back ground after the advent of his best commentaries. His learned commentaries supply all the required information. His commentary abounds in quotations from all the essential texts. In addition to the commentaries, Poems, (Kavyas), Rhetorics such as the Kavyadarsa, Ekavali, he wrote Sastraic Texts belonging to Nyaya, Ubhayamimasa, Vyakarana etc. He produced some independent Kavyas Udarakavya, Raghuviracarita etc. Therefore our commentator is extolled as a genius, versatile scholar, poet and commentator Par Excellence.

Since my boyhood I developed reverence towards his erudition. While I was studying poems I used to note important information from his commentaries. Thus I culled out useful notes and prepared afterwards a book with the notes. This was prepared some three or four decades ago. Now I am running seventy-ninth years of my age. At this juncture fortune favoured me to get this book printed and published. This book is now being presented to the scholars with much respect. If this book can provide any benefit I feel I am amply rewarded.

Mallinatha named his commentaries thus – Sanjivani, Ghantapatha, Sarvankasa, Jivatu, Niskantaka, Tarala and the like. The above nomenclature itself bears testimony to the depth of his knowledge, because the names themselves denote the nature and quality of his commentaries. Sri Harsas text Naisadhiyacarita is mentioned as Naisadham Vidvadausadham. So he wrote a commentary rightly naming it as Jivatu, which means Life giving medicine.

Any scholar by reading his commentary can easily evaluate the worth of his annotation. I have tried my level best to show the practical benefit of his commentary.

Mallinatha's intention in commenting Mahakavyas etc. is, as he himself mentioned, to make the readers understand the texts, which one cannot understand without commentary. In this connection also he said that he wrote the commentaries to re-inspire with life the poems of Kalidasa, which were fainting under the influence of the poison of bad commentaries. Hence he called his commentary as Sanjivani (re-inspiring). It is quite but proper to quote these two verses of Mallinatha-

If we believe in an anecdote woven round an enigmatic verse:

My mother gets angry neither with me nor my wife (her daughter-in-law) her daughter-in-law (my wife) is angry neither with her mother-in-law (my mother) nor with me. I am angry neither with my wife nor mother (her mother-in-law) O king please tell me who is at fault for the anger?

From this we understand that Mallinatha too suffered from the pangs of object poverty. Bhoja used to give Samasyas (puzzles) to the poets to be sloved by them. On the contrary Mallinatha posed a samasya to the king himself in the shape of above verse.

The intelligent king knew the reason for the dissatisfaction and anger, as poverty and immediately ordered to treasurer to give him sufficient wealth for the poet. The verse gives the information of Mallinatha's poverty. It reminds us of the saying Yatra vidya na tatra Srih Yatra Srih na Sarasvati. There will not be wealth where there is knowledge and also will not be knowledge where there is wealth. Sangatam srisarasvatyoh ekasamsraya durlabham wealth and knowledge would not co-exist in one and the same place.