[South Indian Sanskrit MS 153, Whish MS 158] Mahābhārata. Sambhava-Parvan.

Mahābhārata. Sambhava-Parvan.

Language – Sanskrit

Date – [1800?]
Palm leaf; 7 or 8 lines on a folio.

Manuscript consists of the following texts: 1-3.unidentified fragments of works, partly in Sanskrit, partly in Malayalam; 4. fragment of a Prayogasāra, a work on ritual? 5. fragment of a work of the Prayoga kind, on witchcraft and domestic rites; 6. the Sambhava-Parvan of the Mahābhārata, in 12 Adhyāyas.

Text 4 begins: hariḥ ataḥ paraṃ pravakṣyāmi yogaṃ paramadurllabhaṃ dharmamokṣapradan tatvan divyaṃ divyālayapradaṃ niṣkaḻasyāprameyasya devasya paramātmanaḥ santānayogam ity āhus saṃsārocchittisādhanaṃ yogāt samādhis sāyujyaṃ sāyujyād divyasānmatā sā hi saṃsārasandhānā hāvanī muktir iṣyate kāmakrodhas tathā lobho mohaś ca mada eva ca | mātsaryañ ceti ṣaḍvarggo vairī jñeyo mumukṣuṇā yamaś ca niyamas tadvad āsannaṃ prāṇadhāraṇaṃ pratyāhāro dhāraṇā ca dhyānāñ cāpi samādhitā, etc.

It ends (f.9b): praśastasūtrasūkṣman tu śaṃkunaivāvadhārayet yathaiva pūrvāparayāmyasaumyadigbhāgavijñānam ihopadiṣṭaṃ samāsantastaviṣayaṃ vivicya kāryyāṇi karmanibandhanāni | iti prayogasāre ṣaṭḍviṃśaḥ paṭalaḥ || ||

Text 5 begins: hariḥ meṣamāṃsamalākīrṇṇatatkeṭāmiṣadhūpitāḍāḍimīphalasanpattiṃ mahatīṃ labhate parāṃ | yasya kasyāpi māṃsena gokṣīraguḻasaṃginā tena siktena nāraṃgī sussvādākhyā phalośritā | prathamaṃ kusumo meṣaḥ kuṭhāreṇa kṣate kṛte jaṃghāyāṃ tilacūrṇṇena samena madhusarppiṣā | etc.

It ends (f.14): dugdhayuktaṃ phalaṃ dhātryādinaikaṃ peṣayet tataḥ sitājyasahitaḥ vācyāmodakaṃ bhakṣayet tu taṃ daśarātreṣu saṃhanti pipāsāñ ca na saṃśayaḥ || ||

For a longer quotation from Text 4 and notes from the margins of Text 5, see Winternitz catalogue entry.

South Indian Sanskrit / Whish Manuscript Collection.

See ’A catalogue of South Indian Sanskrit manuscripts (especially those of the Whish Collection) belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland’ by M. Winternitz, with an appendix by F. W. Thomas (London: RAS, 1902) p.210-212. Go to http://tinyurl.com/j3tkdwj for a digital copy of this catalogue. Winternitz notes that he has published a full treatment of this manuscript of the Sambhava-Parvan of the Mahābhārata in ‘On the South-Indian recension of the Mahābhārata’, Indian Antiquary, vol. XXVII, 1898, p.134-136.

J. L. Whish, gift of manuscripts collected by his brother C. M. Whish, July 1836.

Texts mainly in Sanskrit; Malayalam script.