[Advaita-l] Bhartrhari

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

[was Re: [Advaita-l] How to begin studying Advaita Vedanta : post 1 of 3]

On Wed, 27 Jan 2010, Sundaresan, Vidyasankar (GE Infra, Water) wrote:

> The patanjali-vijaya (also called patanjali-carita) of Ramabhadra 
> Dikshita should only be taken as a great poetic drama about Patanjali, 
> the author of the mahAbhAshya on Sanskrit grammar. It makes not only 
> bhartRhari and vikrama to be brothers, but also adds vararuci and bhaTTi 
> to the family! Each of them is said to have been born to the same 
> father, but different mothers. Also, the kAvya gives the name as 
> candragupta, not as candraSarmA.

The part about Bhartrahari and Vikrama being half-brothers atleast is not 
unique to that author.  How Bhartrahari became king and banished his 
brother, then became more and more dissolute until the adultery of his 
queen caused him to become disillusioned with worldly life and to abdicate 
the throne in favor of Vikrama is part of popular folklore in Northern 
parts of India as part of the cycle of stories concerning "Vikrama and the 
Vampire." and also the legends of the yogi saint Gorakhnath.  I think I 
first heard it in an Amar Chitra Katha type comic many years ago.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>