vasudhaiva ku.tumbakam revisited

[Harunaga Isaacson]

On Wed, 2 Aug 2000, Jan E.M. Houben wrote:

> Vasudhaiva ku.tumbakam (much quoted and employed in modern publications e.g.
> of the VHP):
> does it or does it not occur in any other ancient/classical Sanskrit (not to
> speak of Vedic) text except the Hitopadesa 1.3 -- where this phrase is used
> in a mean and deceitful way?
> Is anyone aware of its occurrence in Manusmrti or elsewhere? Any concrete
> references (or references to an electronic Manusmrti if it exists) will be
> appreciated.

No doubt others with more time and more books to hand than I can provide
more exhaustive answers. I just happen to have been reading the
Subhaa.sitaratnako.sa, Vidyaakara's early anthology, recently.

Subhaa.sitaratnako.sa (ed. Kosambi and Gokhale) 1241 (verse 29 of the
sadvrajyaa, and indeed as you will see their is no question of meanness
or deceit here):

aya.m nija.h paro veti ga.nanaa laghucetasaam
udaaracaritaanaa.m tu vasudhaiva ku.tumbakam

This verse is quoted in several Ala.mkaara"saastra works too.  The only
precise reference I have at hand as I write is Bhoja's
"S.r"ngaaraprakaa"sa (new ed. by V. Raghavan, part 1. [can Michael Witzel
or anyone tell us when we can expect the rest? I for one am very eagerly
looking forward to it] Harvard 1998, Harvard Oriental Series 53)) where
you will find the verse quoted on p. 405. It is apparently sometimes
attributed to Udbha.ta, sometimes to Ke"sa.ta.

The expression indeed does not occur in the Manusm.rti (An electronic text
of Manu input and proofread by M. Yano and Y. Ikari is publicly available,
and you can find it e.g. through following the link for Virtual Archive of
Indic e-texts on the INDOLOGY home-page).

Best wishes,

Harunaga Isaacson

Oxford/Hamburg