BHARTRIHARI, b'harlre-hit'r4 (Skt. Bhar trhari). The name of a Sanskrit author and leg endary prince of India, whom tradition associates especially with Ujjain, the royal city of King Vikrama (q.v.). Bhartrihari's name is known to fame through a collection of 300 or more sen tentious stanzas, written in highly polished Sanskrit verse, with considerable rhythmical variety and comprised under the name of Satakas, centuries. These Satakas are divided into three more or less precise hundreds, according to the manuscripts which contain them. The theme of the first hundred stanzas is Good Conduct, the in which the ethics of human life, rules for conduct and moral behavior are pithily presented in brief metrical proverbs or apt illus trations full of wise thought and Oriental pictur esqueness. The second century is devoted to aphorisms on the Passion of Love, the Smigara fiataka. The Third Century, or deals with Renunciation, the abandonment of worldly desires and pleasures, which are mere vanity.
The question how far these aphoristic sayings or proverbial wisdom in verse are directly to be attributed to Bhartrihari as author, or whether the collection may not be regarded as a mere series of apothegms and wise saws drawn from various sources and attached to his name, is a point that has been much discussed. In spite of the fact that a number of the stanzas are found in works ascribed to other authors, the tendency nowadays is to favor the native tradition which upholds Bhartrihari as author of most of these poetical stanzas, so rich in philosophic judgment and sound common sense.
The second point, as to Bhartrihari's person ality, whether he was a king, and what may have been his era, has been much debated. According to tradition he actually was King of Ujjain, and elder brother of the renowned Vikramaditya. He is said to have abdicated the throne in favor of his brother because his life was ruined owing to disappointment in love (compare the tradi tional interpretation of 2) ; and he is reported to have withdrawn from the world, although after long hesitation, to pursue the existence of an ascetic. The inquiring visitor at Ujjain will yet be shown the kingly poet's hermit grave, and still will hear numerous leg ends recounted about Bhartrihari's life. A state ment of the Chinese traveler I-Tsing, who visited India in the Seventh Century of our era, would place the date of Bhartrihari's death at A.D. 651,
although native tradition would claim that he lived several hundred years earlier. The same Chinese authority likewise recognizes him as the composer of a grammatical treatise, the Vakya padiya, although its authenticity has been doubt ed by some Hindu scholars. In such matters it may be well to suspend judgment until more ma terial be gathered, and in all cases due weight must be given to the native tradition. For the present we may be safe in accepting Bhartrihari as a real personality, a philosophic poet of gen uine merit, perhaps likewise as a grammarian, although this has been questioned, and probably also as one of royal estate, who may have been related to Vikrama of Ujjain.
From a literary standpoint the collection of Bhartrihari's Sententious Wisdom has real merit, and the stanzas have also the special in terest that 200 of them were the first piece of translation from the Sanskrit known to have been published in any European tongue. This version appeared in a book by the Dutch mission ary, Abraham Roger, Dat Opentot Deure hat Verborgen Heydendont (Leyden, 1651). Numer ous editions, translations, and criticisms of Bhartrihari have since been issued. Consult: especially, Purohit Gopi Nath, lthartrihari, Ed ited with Ilindi and English Translations (Bom bay, 1890) ; Kale and Gurjar, Nitiaataka and rairagya.4ataka, Edited frith Notes and an Eng lish Translation (Bombay, 189S) Trimbak, Bhartrihari's Niti- and l'airagya-Aatakas, Bom bay Sanskrit Series (1874) ; a complete edition of the three Natakas, with the native Sanskrit commentary; Nirnaya-Sagara Press Series (Bom bay, 1S92) ; Von Bohlen. Bhartrihori's Sententice (Berlin. 1S33) ; and the same writer's German translation, Die Spriiche des Bhartriharis (Ham burg. 1S35) ; Regnand, Les stances morales et religieuses de Bhartrihari (Paris, IS75) Tawney, Two Centuries of Bhartrihari (London, 1877) ; Wortham, Translation of the Satol:as of Bhartrihari (London, 1SS6) ; More, A Century of Indian Epigrams, Chiefly from the Sanskrit of Bhartrihari (Boston and New York, ISM) Takakusu, A Record of the Buddhist Re ligion by (Oxford, 189S) ; and an edition of the in the Benares Sanskrit Series, ed. Griffith and Thibaut (1892).