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Puranic encyclopaedia

by Vettam Mani | 1975 | 609,556 words | ISBN-10: 0842608222

This page describes the Story of Patanjali included the Puranic encyclopaedia by Vettam Mani that was translated into English in 1975. The Puranas have for centuries profoundly influenced Indian life and Culture and are defined by their characteristic features (panca-lakshana, literally, ‘the five characteristics of a Purana�).

Story of ʲٲñᲹ

A celebrated commentator in Sanskrit. ʲٲñᲹ is one of the best commentators of ṇiԾ’s Vyākarṇaūٰ. Pandits are of opinion that he got his name ʲٲñᲹ to mean that people should worship (ñᲹ) at his foot (). He was such an adorable person. Pandits believe that ʲٲñᲹ is the author of Yogasūtra and 䲹첹ṃh. A few believe that ʲٲñᲹ was the incarnation of Ādiśeṣa. But modern scholars are of opinion that ʲٲñᲹ, the commentator and ʲٲñᲹ the author of Yogaūٰ are two different persons.

In his book on ʲٲñᲹcarita, 峾󲹻īṣiٲ writes about the birth of ʲٲñᲹ:�"Once Goṇikā, daughter of a sage, prayed to the Sun-god for a son At once Ananta, King of the serpents, fell on her palm in the form of a sage. The ascetic girl brought up that sage as her son. After some years the sage went to Cidambara and prayed to Ś to bless him with enough knowledge and wisdom to write a commentary on ٲⲹԲ’s Vyākaraṇavārttika (explanatory rules on Pāṇiṇi’s ūٰ). Ś blessed him and the sage wrote the commentary. Many disciples went to him to learn the commentary and the sage accepted them all as disciples and promised to teach them provided they would abide by a condition, namely, that nobody should remove a curtain he would place between him and the disciples while teaching. The teaching went on for some time. He would reply to their doubts but the replies were peculiar and ambiguous and the disciples, getting disappointed, removed the curtain one day. The sage cursed them all. One of the disciples was away from the place then and the sage cursed him for leaving the place without permission during the course of study. He begged for relief and the sage was pleased. The Guru said if he could teach his commentary to one who would say logically that the Bhūtakarmavācyakṛdanta (past participle of a verb) of the root 'Pac' was 'Pakva' he would be released from the curse. Candragupta who came from Ჹ⾱ī gave the correct answer and he was taught the Ѳṣy. 󲹰ṛh was the son born to Candragupta of a Śū woman.

ʲٲñᲹ, according to Professor Goldstucker, was a courtier of King ʳṣyٰ and was alive when Menander attacked ٲ. This would mean that ʲٲñᲹ lived before B.C. 150.

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