[INDOLOGY] Patanjali and Vishnu

[edbryant at rci.rutgers.edu]

I am away from my desk and do not have my Bhoja commentary at hand, but I
am assuming Bhoja is quoting those two verses, yes, rather than composing
them  (in other words they preexisted him)? Or is this not clear from the
Sanskrit?  If Bhoja is quoting an older reference then this is the
terminus ad quem of the notion of the 'three Patanjali's' howsoever
ghostly the Ayurvedic one turns out to be.

While on the topic, zeSa in the Vaishnava literature is a derivative form
of Vishnu. So the second of the two Patanjali verses can be seen as
pointing to an association of Patanjali with Vishnu going back at least
that far. A couple of questions here: given that while Vishnu bears a
zaNkha and cakra, he does not hold a sword, asi, in  normative
iconographical representations, does anyone know of any Vishnu forms
bearing one (I assume only these three items (zaNkkacakrAsi dhArinam) are
mentioned in the verse due to metrical considerations).  And, secondly,
are there any  Saivite references at this time  associating zeSA WITH
ziva?.

Thanks.  Edwin Bryant





> Further to the idea about the mythical "three patanjalis", please,
> *please*
> everyone note that *there is no medical Patanjali.  **There does not exist
> a major author of a medical treatise in Sanskrit who is called Patanjali*.
>
> If you wish to pursue the details, the name has been investigated in
> detail
> by Meulenbeld in his *History of Indian Medical Literature* (especially
> IA:
> 141-44, 196).  As a person's name in medical literature, "Patanjali" lives
> a ghostly life as a name cited by others, as a legendary authority, as a
> person after whom recipes are named, etc. etc.   Most of these occurrences
> are from the second millennium of our era, and after the first "three
> Patanjalis" assertion by Bhoja Deva.  But even with these "Patanjali"
> whispers, it remains the fact that there does not exist an identifiable
> medical treatise by an author called Patanjali.
>
> I'm sorry to shout.  But it baffles me to see the continuing repetition of
> the idea that there was a medical Patanjali when there simply wasn't one.
> Never has been.  Fake News!
>
> Best,
> Dominik
>
>
> ​
> --
> Professor Dominik Wujastyk <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk>
> ​,​
>
> Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
> ​,​
>
> Department of History and Classics
> <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>
> ​,​
> University of Alberta, Canada
> ​.​
>
> South Asia at the U of A:
>
> ​sas.ualberta.ca​
> ​​
>
>
> On 15 May 2017 at 23:00, Ashok Aklujkar via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Not taking the subject specification above rigidly, I would like to make
>> three points:
>> (a) Even in studying stories one should try to ascertain if they pertain
>> to Vyākaraṇa Patañjali, Yoga Patañjali or ̄ Āyurveda Patañjali.
>> (b) The tradition of the identity of these three Patañjalis may be
>> older
>> than it is usually taken to be.
>> (c) In three interlinked articles published in the book mentioned below,
>> I
>> have made a case for taking the Vyākaraṇa Patañjali as a person
>> belonging
>> to Kashmir. I have also pointed out that the epithet Gonardīya (<—
>> Gonandīya) definitely applies to this Patañjali and that the epithet
>> Goṇikā-putra may also contain historical information about him. Much
>> history can be gleaned if the stories are cautiously handled.
>>
>>         Aklujkar, Ashok. 2008. (a) “Pata~jali’s Mahābhāṣya as a
>> key to
>> happy Kashmir.” (b) “Gonardīya, Goṇikā-putra, Patañjali and
>> Gonandīya.” (c)
>> “Patañjali: a Kashmirian.” Pp. 41-87, 88-172 and 173-205,
>> respectively in
>> Linguistic Traditions of Kashmir,  (eds) Kaul, Mrinal; Aklujkar, Ashok.
>> New
>> Delhi: D.K. Printworld.
>>
>> a.a.
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