Sattasaee or Gatha-shaptashatee

[sunil bhattacharjya]

Dear friends,

In the Sattaseei (composed in Maharashtri-Prakrt) there are said to be 44 verses by the Shatavahana king Hala himself. It is said that King Hala had profusely applauded the scholarship and bravery of king Vikramarka (Vikramaditya) in the Saattasaee. I  was looking for those 44 verses in the book "Poems of life and love in ancient India (Hala Sattaasee)" translated from Prakrt by Peter Khoroche and Herman Tieken, but I could not find any verse (ascribed to Hala) except the solitary verse, which mentions Hala as given below :

Among countless elegant poens,

King Hala, patron of poets,

Has selected seven hundred.

I shall be grateful if any scholar give me the 44 verses.

Regards,

Sunil KB

[sunil bhattacharjya]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: sunil bhattacharjya <skbhatt...@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, May 18, 2013 at 8:23 AM
Subject: Re: {भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्} Sattasaee or Gatha-shaptashatee
To: "Hnbhat B.R." <hnbh...@gmail.com>

It seems there is one particular edition of Gatha-saptashatee, where each and every contributor's name is mentioned against each and every verse. There could  be scholars in India or abroad who may be aware of this source. Moreover I understand that some advanced courses of Sanskrit and Prakrt include the study of the Gatha-saptashatee. I hope I shall be able to get this help from some scholar. I do not want to undertake research on this due to my other preoccupations. Further there may not be any need to reinvent the wheel as some scholars might have already done the necessary research on this.

On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 10:49 PM, Hnbhat B.R. <hnbh...@gmail.com> wrote:

OK. Thank you for your clarification. But you can give the source of
your information that Hala has contributed his 44 verses. If it could
not be identified in any of the editions, I think it cannot be found.

You may try looking through out about 700 to 900 verse (as you have
suggested including 44 verses among these). Let us hope if some one
has already identified these 44 verses of Hala himself, that would be
good enough for your research.

On 5/18/13, sunil bhattacharjya <skbhatt...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Bhatji,
>
> In Gatha-saptashatee King Hala has included the verses of several poets and
> he is said to have also contributed his own 44 verses. The total number of
> verses in that compilation was 700 (as its name suggests). It is reported
> byA. Weber that he went through as many as 17 versions and the total number
> of verses came to be around 900. This shows there have been many later
> additions. Weber found some 450 verses common in all editions. That means
> that these 450 verses could be genuine verses belonging to the original
> compilation of Hala. However finding the remaining 250 genuine verses had
> been difficult and different scholars might have applied different
> yardsticks for selection.
>
> Hala was a Shatavahana king and there was another kind named  Vikramarka,
> who was his contemporary. To my knowledge the history of Nepal does
> mention  one king Vikramarka, who was contemporary of Hala. Thus the
> mention of  Vikramarka in Gatha saptashatee may be genuine but some
> scholars might have thought that to be interpolated and deleted, as was
> done by Peter Khoroche and Herman Tieken. That is why I am looking for
> these 44 verses. If any scholars is aware of any edition which has these 44
> verses, it will be very helpful if he informs about that to me.
>
> Regards,
> Sunil KB
>
>
> On Fri, May 17, 2013 at 9:50 PM, Hnbhat B.R. <hnbh...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear friend,
>>
>> I could not understand why you are looking for the 44 verses
>> particularly.
>>
>> As you can see from the portion you have quoted, the verses are not 44
>> as you have expected, but they are "King Hala, patron of poets,
>> Has selected seven hundred." गाहासत्तसई = गाथासप्तशती = ७०० Seven
>> Hundred.
>>
>> And you can get the complete Book from Chowkhambha Publications as per
>> their web catalogue:
>>
>> कविवत्सलहालसातवाहनविरचिता गाथासप्तशती (गाहासत्तसई) : सविमर्श "प्रकाश"
>> हिन्दीव्याख्योपेता. 1. संस्करण
>> व्याख्याकारः, जगन्नाथ पाठक
>> 40, 354, 81, 34 p. ; 23 cm
>> वाराणसी, India. 1969. चौखम्बा संस्कृत सीरीज आफिस
>> काशी संस्कृत ग्रन्थमाला ; 192
>>
>> In Google Book Search I found this also publication:
>>
>> http://www.bookganga.com/eBooks/Book/5203965446151972493.htm''

>> > --
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>>
>>
>> --
>> *Dr. Hari Narayana Bhat B.R. M.A., Ph.D.,
>> **Research Scholar(Retd),
>> *
>> Ecole française d'Extrême-OrientCentre de Pondichéry
>> 16 & 19, Rue Dumas
>>
>


--
*Dr. Hari Narayana Bhat B.R. M.A., Ph.D.,
**Research Scholar(Retd),
*
Ecole française d'Extrême-OrientCentre de Pondichéry
16 & 19, Rue Dumas

[Hnbhat B.R.]

 

It seems there is one particular edition of Gatha-saptashatee, where each and every contributor's name is mentioned against each and every verse. There could  be scholars in India or abroad who may be aware of this source. Moreover I understand that some advanced courses of Sanskrit and Prakrt include the study of the Gatha-saptashatee. I hope I shall be able to get this help from some scholar. I do not want to undertake research on this due to my other preoccupations. Further there may not be any need to reinvent the wheel as some scholars might have already done the necessary research on this.

It is already available in the काव्यमाला Edition  available for download in DLI in the link I had already given in the Index page from 1-12 and indicated in the Introduction portion of the same book by the Editors:

 Just you can go through the 1-12 pages and locate the verses indexed with sources named in the text as हालस्स like this:

This does not need any fresh research as you had anticipated, but just download and open the काव्यमाला Edition. In case you have any doubt, about its authenticity, further research need be undertaken. Whether this was noted by Hala himself, as हालस्स. Anyhow I didn't count the numbers of Indexed verses. hoping you will find to count them whether it comes to 44 number you have given. 

 

 

[sunil bhattacharjya]

Thank you so much for these details. I could get the Gatha Saptashatee, Kavyamala-21.

Regards,

Sunil KB

[sunil bhattacharjya]

Namaste friends,

This is to inform you that I have gone through the Gathasaptashatee (the Kavyamala version) and found mention of 47 (not 44) verses attributed to Hala and in none of them Vikramarka is mentioned. This means that Vikramarka could have been mentioned in the other 200 verses. out of the total 900 verses found by A.Weber. These 200 verses were obviously not considered by the editor of the Kavyamala version. This also means that there is scope for one to study this aspect as part of a research project.

Regards,

Sunil KB