MANASOLLASA - A UNIQUE ENCYCLOPEDIA BY DARESA PUBLICATIONS

[p.s. gururaj]

Manasollasa – The First Encyclopedia of Karnataka

India’s knowledge system in the fields of science, philosophy, history, administration, judiciary, literature, fine arts, culinary, medicine, economics are all treasured in the ancient manuscripts written on palm-leaf folios and handmade papers. Manuscript tradition played a great role in transmitting Indian learning process to the people from time to time. The early texts of Panini, Patanjali, Kautilya, Manu, Varahamihira, Bharata are available in the form of manuscript written in Sanskrit language on the palm-leaves. They are preserved in the Manuscript libraries of India, Germany, Britain, France and other European and Asian countries. Later the manuscript tradition continued in regional languages also. India has a rich tradition of intellectual inquiry and a textual heritage that goes back to several hundreds of years. Fortunately, most of the texts treasured in the above libraries are translated, interpreted with the commentaries and critical editions in English and regional languages. The process of digitizing the ancient manuscripts has been taken up by the Government of India under the National Manuscript Mission. India can be proud of the phenomenal source of knowledge which stimulates the unprecedented and unappalled intellectual awakening.  

India was magnificently advanced in intellectual activity during the ancient and medieval times of Indian History. The intellectual achievements of Indian culture are experienced in multiplicity of thoughts, in the perceptions of philosophical, literary, scientific, and artistic and life related information, which was culminated in the form of encyclopedia. The tradition of working on encyclopedia goes back to the Vishnudharmottara Purana of fourth century, and then followed with the Bruhath Samhita of Varaha Mihira in seventh century. Out of four encyclopedias of historical times, it is interesting to know that two encyclopedic works originated in Karnataka, one is Abhilashitartha Chintamani or Manasollasa of Someshvara belongs to early twelfth century and the other, Shivatatva Ratnakara of Basava Bhupala of sixteenth century.  These two scholarly works are great contribution in visualizing the medieval India  The intellectual activities of the royals of Karnataka continued with the working on the illustrated manuscript Sri Tatvanidhi ascribed to Krishnaraja Wodeyar III.

 Chalukyas who ruled from Kalyana during late tenth century to mid thirteenth century were responsible for the cultural confluence of India. The works in the field of art and literature received highest attention of the royals and commoners in that period. The rulers themselves were scholars of high caliber and wrote several outstanding texts. Kavi Chakravarti Ranna, Nagavarma I, Udayaditya, Bilhana, Vadiraja, Vijnaneshvara, Someshvara III, Parshvadeva, and Jagadekamalla were great poets and contributed not only to Karnataka but also to Indian art, thought and literature.

Abhilashitartha Chintamani or Manasollasa is a rare encyclopedic work credited to the Kalyana Chalukyan Emperor Someshvara III, the son of the Emperor Vikramaditya IV and the queen Chandaladevi ruling Aland of the present Gulburga District. Vikramaditya ruled for sixty years, Someshvara made very good use of the available time in scholarly pursuits and that resulted in the form of Manasollasa. This text is also known as Rajamanasollasa.    The work was composed in during 1129-1131 A.D.  There are several instances where he addressed himself as Someshvaradeva, Somabhupala, Someshvara Kshitipa and his title as Kalyana Chalukya Chakravartu Sarvajna Someshvara Virachita Manasollasa. His command over the knowledge in multi-disciplinary streams is evident when we observe the way he handles the nuances with ease. The encyclopedia contains five major chapters with twenty sub-chapters in each which accounts to 100 chapters composed in 8000 slokas or verses. .Every aspect of life, human, animal, divine, architecture, painting, iconography, dance, music, instrumental music, decorative arts, polity, hunting, sports, treasury, gemology, culinary, astrology, medicine, veterinary science, drinks,  are some of the interesting chapters draw the attention..

One of the main features of a good research is referencing and giving credits to the work done earlier.  In that sense,  Emperor Someshvara stands as an excellent researcher, he gave credits to Charaka, Sushruta, Vagbhata for chapter on medicine, for music and dance, he is indebted to Samaveda, Matanga’s Bruhaddeshi, Bharata’s Natyashastra, for polity, he has referred Chanakya’s Arthashastra, for iconography and painting chapters the sources are Mayamata and Vishnudharmottarapurana, while writing about the luxurious life he referred Vatsyayana’s Kamasutra. His writings throw light on the contemporary life and taste of the people of Karnataka.

While discussing on dance traditions, along with margi, the classical, he emphasizes on desi, regional forms. Interestingly, Somesvara explains six categories of dancers – Nartaki, Nata or Nati, Nartaka, Vaitalika, Charana, Kollatika. His work is valuable in terms of the information about the regional style of music and dance. Nearly 80 verses in the portion of music are dedicated to the discussion on ragas. Huddaka, Ghadasa, Karati, Ranja, Selluka are the regional musical instruments get their place in Manasollasa. Thus, Somesvara was rightly called the Sangita Bharata Sastra Visarada. The names of places and the material culture connected to these places in the text are evident even today, which would help in tracing the economic history. In the chapter on gemology, the account he gives shows his excellency in taking care of the royal treasury and the testing of the gems, their merits and demerits. An independent text on the art of painting has not been traced so far. But Someshvara gives astounding technical information on making of colours, brushes, preparing wall for murals and the making of portraits with minute details. Manasollasa is an unparallel source of knowledge originated from Karnataka.

 Regarding the publication of Manasollasa, the first original text in Devanagari script was published in 1925 and 1939 by G.K.Gondekar under Gaekwad Oriental Series. In 1961 three volumes were published by same group. An edited version by Dr.R.Shyamashastri was published by Oriental Institute Mysore titled as Abhilashitartha Chintamani. This was a real scholarly achievement. To the Kannadigas, this great work was introduced by a senior scholar D.L.Narasimhachar in the form of an article. Later the eminent scholar M.M.Kalburgi with a team of scholars edited Manasollasa in Kannada published by Karnataka University in 1998. Since it was only the translation of Sanskrit verses to Kannada, there was a strong need for a publication with commentary, critical review and interpretation of the contents of original Manasollasa. Realising this need, the distinguished scholar, the first Vice-Chancellor, Dr.Mallepuram G.Venkatesh of Karnataka Sanskrit University undertook this yeoman task of editing with the support of fellow scholars. Though there was a delay, the present enterprising Vice Chancellor Prof. Srinivas Varkhedi prioritized the publication work jointly with DARESA PUBLICATIONS , emerged into five volumes was dedicated to the sarasvataloka on 18^th March by his Excellency the Governor of Karnataka. It is a great day in the cultural history of Karnataka because a twelfth century encyclopedia is made available to the people of Karnataka and Kannada speaking people across the countries through the dedicated efforts of Karnataka Sanskrit University.  

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[Techno-Gandhian Center]

Dear Sh. Padmapranava,

Thanks for posting such vital information. Our heritage and culture must be preserved and restored in all possible digital forms so as to ensure that future generations would have a knowledge about them. The future generation must also understand how important it is to follow our culture. 

In this regard, another posting by Sh. Rajendra Deshpande is also of noteworthy. It reveals how those born between 1950-1985 were happily living with out worries of what today's generation is facing every day. We must also note that most of the worries of today are unnecessary and invited by ourselves. 

Regards.

-Admin