in a commentary to a Sanskrit play (dated from the 9th to the 11th c.), there is the following quotation from/reference to a sūtra-work by one Bhoja :

vānarajātibhir ity atra vā śabdasya+eva+ity arthaḥ | vā śabdaḥ samuccaya-vikalpa-nirṇayeṣv iti bhojasūtreṇoktam | atra nirṇaye | antarhitābhir eva+ity arthaḥ |

(the glossed word is in italics : the meaning is either in the śabda itself or - according to the referred sūtra -, and as it would be the case here, in the nirṇaya).

This could be a reference to one work among the several ones attributed to the 11th c. king of Dhara.

However, Bhoja's only work in sūtra-form is the grammatical Sarasvatī-kanṭhābharaṇa (*), in 8 adh., of which I am aware of the following two editions only :

• 4 vols ed. in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, no. 117 (1935), 127 (1937), 140 (1938) and 154 (1948), of which the vol. 4 only is e-available through the DLI : http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/scripts/FullindexDefault.htm?path1=/data14/upload/0012/922&first=1&last=547&barcode=99999990322092

or http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/scripts/FullindexDefault.htm?path1=/data9/upload/0291/833&first=1&last=547&barcode=99999990293901

• ed. T. R. Chintamani, prefaced by Kunhan Raja, Madras University Sanskrit Series no. 11, 1937, which should be available through the DLI (but it does not function in this case) :

http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/scripts/FullindexDefault.htm?path1=/rawdataupload/upload/0121/707&first=1&last=530&barcode=5990010121705

Would the commentary refer to that work (which I am presently unable to check fully)?

Or would it be possible that there exists a (mīmāṃsā or niyāya, possibly lost) sūtra-work dealing with śabda-topic and authored by another (older) Bhoja?

Note that Aruṇagirinātha in his com. to Kumārasambhava 4,63 (cf. also Nārāyaṇa Paṇḍita ad loc.) refers to a grammatical sūtra by Bhoja in the followin manner :

tadādau ceti bhojasūtram

(TSS 32, p. 251-2: https://ia601602.us.archive.org/20/items/Trivandrum_Sanskrit_Series_TSS/TSS-032_Kumarasambhava_Part_2_-_TG_Sastri_1913.pdf )

Thank you for any comment or help in that matter.

* which is different from Bhoja's encyclopaedic work on poetics/rhetorics samely entitled Sarasvatī-kanṭhābharaṇa, in 5 paricchedas, available through the following editions:

• ed. Jīvānanda Vidyāsāgara, Calcutta, 1894:

https://ia601904.us.archive.org/3/items/Complete_Works_of_Jibananda_Vidyasagara/Saraswatikanthabharanam_with_Commentary_-_Jibananda_Vidyasagara_1894.pdf or

http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/scripts/FullindexDefault.htm?path1=/data_copy/upload/0083/216&first=1&last=854&barcode=1990020083211

• NSP, 2nd ed. 1934, KM series no. 94 (input of the first 4 par. on SARIT) :

http://ia700702.us.archive.org/0/items/Kavya_Mala_Series_Of_Nirnaya_Sagar_Press/KavyamalaVol_94-SaraswatikanthabharanaOfBhoja1934.pdf

or http://ia600505.us.archive.org/22/items/TFIC_ASI_Books/SaraswatiKanthabharana.pdf or http://asi.nic.in/asi_books/1603.pdf or http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/scripts/FullindexDefault.htm?path1=/data6/upload/0151/514&first=1&last=894&barcode=2020010008808

• Narayan Yantralay, Calcutta, 1937 :

http://www.new1.dli.ernet.in/scripts/FullindexDefault.htm?path1=/data6/upload/0136/956&first=1&last=851&barcode=99999990002797

[cover in Bengali script but the few visible pages appear in nagari]

• ed. Kameshwarnath N. Mishra with Hindi transl., Varanasi : Chaukhambha Orientalia, 1976

• ed. Biswanath Bhattacharya, Banaras Hindu University Sanskrit series v. 14, 1979

• ed. with English transl. Sundari Siddhartha abd Hema Ramanathan, New Delhi: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (and Motilal Banarsidass), 3 vols, Kalāmūlaśāstra-granthamālā no 55-57, 2009.

etc.

Note that I do not know which (of the two) Sarasvatī-kanṭhābharaṇa was edited by Anundoram Borooah in 1883, reprinted Gauhati, Publ. Board Assam, 1969 and, more recently, within the Works of Anundoram Borooah : with a note on Anundoram Barooah and his works by Malinee Goswami, Guwahati : Publication Board Assam, 2007, pp. 667-1050, and which could therefore constitute the editio princeps of one or the other work.

Best wishes,

Christophe Vielle

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Christophe Vielle

Louvain-la-Neuve