Sangita Chandra (A Treatise on Indian Dance) By Suklapandita Alias Vipradasa ( An Old and Rare Book)

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We are very happy to place this hitherto unpblished work Sangitacandra', (SC) a treatise on the art of dance, in the hands of the scholars. This edition is based on a singl paper manuscript which was kindly presented to me by Dr. P.S.R. Appa rao, Director of Cultural Affairs, Govern ment of Anhra Pradesh. It was presented to him, he was telling me, by Sri Manavalli Ramakrishna Kavi, a great authority on Naṭyasastra, in recent times.
The manuscript contains 198 folios and is in a good condition. At the end of the manuscript. there is a postscript in pencil writing-Copied at Khatmandu from a copy of the work in the library of H.H. The Maharaja of Nepal', 'Received 27 4.40'. Though it was received, perhaps by Sri Ramakrishna kavi, in 1940, the manuscript must be, as can be guessed from its appearance and the writing, at least hundred years old. No name of the author is mentioned either at the beginning or at the end. But it can be surmised from the references in the text that the author is one Vipradāsa¹ by name (as must have been guessed by Sri Ramakrishna Kavi) and most probably a South Indian There is a statement at the end of the manuscript that the work was taken to Nepal by the king Jagajjyoti from South India.
Nothing is known about the personal history of Vipradasa. He quots extensively, verbatim in many places, from the Nartanadhyaya (VII Adhyaya) of Sangitaratnakara (SR) of Sarngadeva (SD) of the 13th century A.D. That this work is mainly based on SD a text from the South, [because Sarngadeva, though his ancestors hailed from Kashmir, was living in the court of a king of Deogiri (modern Doulatabad) being the son of Soddhala who was the Accountant General (Karan agrani) in the court of Singhapa of Yadava dynasty] is another proof for this author being a South Indian. Sri Ramakrishna Kavi feels that the Nṛttaratnakośa of Kumbhakarņa of 15th century is probably based on SCand states that Jagajjyotirmalla of about 1625 A.D., the King of Nepal, wrote a commentary on this work in Nepali language (Baratakośa. P. 693). Thus Vipradasa may be assigned to the second half of the 14th century A. D.
The author refers to himself with few more names and epithets. Sukla' 'Suklasuri' or 'Sukla pandita' is another name which is used in many places. His father's name appears 'Nidhikara' as is evident from the use of the epithets Nidhikara tmaja' and 'Naidhikara". He has used Vidvaccaranasevin" Prabhusuri' and 'Manisin" etc, also as epithets to himself. But the words Srikanthavalla bha', 'Bhavavallabha' and Karanagrani' do not refer to Vipradasa as was supposed by Sri Rama krishna Kavi (Baratakośa. P. 614) because the lines containing the above words are copied verbatim by the auther of SC. from the SR. Sarngadeva must have used these words in SR., to refer to himself because visņu (Sarngadeva) is a friend of Siva. In some other place he uses the word Sankarakinkara's also. Or he must be referring with all these words to Nandikeśvara or to some other old writer on this subject. 'Srikaranagrani' also is a word referring to SD. only. The verse 1598 in the SC. is a reproduc tion of the verse 1142 from SR. Same is the case with the word 'Karanesvara"