Sanskrit Manuscripts : Amarakośavivṛti

Māṇikya, Amarasiṃha, Māṇikya

Sanskrit Manuscripts

This Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript, written in Bhaktapur in 506 Nepāla Saṃvat (1386 CE), under the reign of Jayasthiti Malla (1382-1395), is the autograph of a Newari commentary, on the Amarakoṣa, by Māṇikya, a work commissioned by the minister Jayadbrahmasvāmin for the sake of his son. Both the Sanskrit stanzas at the end of the commentary as well as the colophon of the present manuscript confirm this information. The work doesn't seem to have a clearly identifiable title: the author clearly gives Vivṛti as the title, but at the same time he defines his commentary both as ṭīkā and ṭippaṇī (sa [...] imāṃ ṭīkām acīkarat_ [...] kṛteṣā(!) 'marakoṣasya, tena nepālabhāṣayā || vivṛtir nāma liṅgānāṃ ṭippanī bālabodhinī); moreover, in the final rubric the work is called (Amarakośa)naipālabhāṣāṭippanī. Most probably, Māṇikya (or Maṇika) is also the author of the Abhinavarāghavānandanāṭaka, preserved in <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01658-00001/1'>Add. 1658.1</a>, as well as of a Newari commentary on the legal text called Mānavanyāyaśāstraṭīkā, preserved in (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-02137/1'>Add.2137</a> (see also Shastri 1905: x and 43-44). The Amarakośa by Amarasiṃha, probably a Buddhist author, is the most renowned Sanskrit lexicographical work, seemingly composed around the middle of the first millennium CE. "The bulk of the Amarakośa is a synonymic dictionary whose articles are grouped subjectwise" (Vogel 1979: 311). The fame of the "Immortal Lexicon" goes far beyond the boundaries of the Indian subcontinent, as testified by its renderings in Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian, Sinhalese and Burmese, among others. A further proof of its importance and popularity is the number of commentaries dedicated to it: at least eighty, of which many still remain unpublished.