Sanskrit Manuscripts : Nibandha

Ratnadatta, Ratnadatta

Sanskrit Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> A copy of a portion of the <i>Nibandha</i> of Ratnadatta, identified by D. Dimitrov (2014), a sub-commentary on the <i>Cāndravyākaraṇapañjikā</i> of Ratnamati (see Dimitrov 2010a, 2014; cf. Add. 1657.1), in its turn a commentary on the <i>Cāndravyākaraṇa</i> of Candragomin with the <i>Vṛtti</i> attributed to Dharmadāsa. The author's name and the title <i>Nibandha</i> (certainly a short form for a longer title probably containing a clear allusion to the commented text) have been found by Dimitrov in a rubric in the only other known copy of the work, consisting of three leaves kept in the National Archives of Kathmandu (possibly originally belonging to the same manuscript as the Cambridge specimen, according to Dimitrov). Virtually nothing else is known about its author. If the <i>Pañjikā</i> was composed in the first half of the 10th c. CE, as argued by Dimitrov (2014), Ratnadatta would have flourished some time between the mid-10th century and the 13th century, the likely date of this manuscript. The Cambridge manuscript contains a small part of the portion covering chapter (<i>adhyāya</i>) 1, section (<i>pāda</i>) 4, of Candragomin's grammar, from the beginning to rule 1.4.73, <i>āṅo yamahanaḥ svāṅgāpyāc ca</i>. The text stops abruptly after a couple of short sentences of the commentary on this <i>sūtra</i> recalled in abbreviated form with the initial word <i>āṅo</i> on the last line of <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(23);return false;'>f. 11r</a>. Oddly, the whole line is then repeated at the top of <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(24);return false;'>f. 11v</a>, after which the folio is blank. The <i>Nibandha</i> is unpublished. </p>