Madhyanta-Vibhagha-Bhashya

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The Government of Bihar established the K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute at Patna in 1951 with the object inter alia to promote historical research, archaeological excavation and investigations and publication of works of permanent value to scholars. This Institute along with the five others was planned by this Government as a token of their homage to the tradition of learning and scholarship for which ancient Bihar was noted.

Apart from the Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute, five others have been established to give incentive to research and advancement of knowledge the Nalanda Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Pali and Buddhist Learning at Nalanda, the Mithila Institute of Post- Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning at Darbhanga, The Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad for advanced Studies and Research in Hindi at Patna, the Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology and Ahimsa at Vaishali and the Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Arabic and Persian Learning at Patna.

A part of this programme of rehabilitating and reorientation ancient learning and scholarship, the K.P. Jayaswal Research Institute has undertaken the editing and publication of the Tibetan Sanskrit Text Series with the co-operation of Scholars in Bihar and outside. Another Series of Historical Research Works for elucidating the history and culture of Bihar and India has also been started by the Institute. The Government of Bihar hope to continue to sponsor such projects and trust that this humble service to the world of scholarship and learning would bear fruit in the fullness of time.

The first edition of the work was published in 1967 by the K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna. It was based on a Photostat copy of a palm-leaf manuscript preserved at the monastery of Ngor and discovered by Mahapandita Rahula Sank?tyayana in 1934. The original manuscript is written in Proto Maithili-cum Bengali script prevalent in the 11th-12th centuries and is complete in 30 folia, each of the size of 10x2 inches. Each side of a folio contains 6 lines (folio 5b has seven) of about 70 sylables each. There is a gap of about six syllable in the lines, except the first and last, around the string hole. The obverse side of the first folio is blank as usual and that of the 30th has 2 lines only, the reverse escaping the camera.

The Photostat copy was supplied to us by Dr. A. S. Altekar in 1956 for decipherment and editing. On account of various preoccupations, the decipherment and editing moved very slow and the press copy was prepared in 1962, and the printing was finished in 1963, and the Introduction was under preparation. But in the meantime, the text had been published to our surprises by professor G.M. Nagao from Suzuki Research Foundation, Tokyo. We were, however, encouraged to find that our humble attempt was successful though we did not consult the Tibetan and Chinese versions, unlike Professor Nagao and his assistants. Our success, to a great extent, was due to Professor S. Yamaguchi's excellent edition of the Madhyantavibhagatika of Acarya Sthiramati, published from Nagoya in 1934.

THE TITLE OF THE TREATISE. The treatise on which the Bkasya is written is named Madhyavibhaga or Madhyantavibhaga. The expression vibhaga means 'exposition', madhya means the middle, anta means the ends. Madhya stands for madhyama-pratipat, that is, the middle path. Thus the compound word madhya- vibhaga means exposition of the middle path, and madhyanta-vibhaga stands for exposition of the middle path and the two ends (extremes), or the middle path shorn of the first and the other ends.

2. THE COMPOSITION OF THE TEXT. The Madhyantavibhaga- sastra consists of five chapters which deal with seven topics, namely, Laksana (the essential characteristics of reality), avarana (the veils covering the reality), tattva (the truth free from all perversions), pratipaksabhavana (the meditation on the antidotes), avastha (the arising of the antidotes in different stages), phalaprapti (the attainment of the fruit), and yananuttarya (the transcendental path). Of the seven topics, the first three are treated of in the first three chapters respectively, the next three in the fourth, and last in the fifth.