Vararuchi
Vararuci (also transliterated as Vararuchi) (Devanagari: वररुचि) is a name associated with several literary and scientific texts in Sanskrit and also with various legends in several parts of India.
[1] Kātyāyana is the author of Vārtikās which is an elaboration of certain sūtrās (rules or aphorisms) in Pāṇini's much revered treatise on Sanskrit grammar titled Aṣṭādhyāyī.
[3] Vararuci is believed to be the author of Prākrita Prakāśa, the oldest treatise on the grammar of Prākrit language.
The eldest son of Vararuci of Kerala legend is known as Mezhathol Agnihothri and he is supposed to have lived between 343 and 378 CE.
The eldest son of this Vararuci, the establisher of the first of the twelve clans, was one Mezhattol Agnihotri and he is supposed to have lived between 343 and 378 CE.
This astronomer is the author of the well-known Vākyakaraṇa, which is the source book of the Vākya Panchānga, popular in South India, .
Chapter III is devoted to problems involving time, position and direction and other preliminaries like the precession of the equinoxes.
[15] This historical mindset justifies the great respect and prestige attributed to the ancient grammarians of India like Pāṇini and Patanjali.
Kātyāyana (c. 3rd century BCE) was a Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and Vedic priest who lived in ancient India.
[22] The work titled Ubhayabhisarika (The mutual elopement) appears in a collection of four monologues titled Chaturbhani, the other monologues in the collection being Padma-prabhritaka (The lotus gift) by Shudraka, Dhurta-vita-samvada (Rogue and pimp confer) by Isvaradatta and Padataditaka (The kick) by Shyamalika.
The collection along with an English translation has been published in Clay Sanskrit Library under the title The Quartet of Causeries.
This verse appears in Jyotirvidabharana,[24] which is supposed to be a work of the great Kalidasa but is in fact a late forgery.
This seven volume work is a systematic and detailed account of more than 300 castes and tribes in the erstwhile Madras Presidency and the states of Travancore and Cochin.
This work originally written in Malayalam and published as a series of pamphlets during the years 1909 – 1934 is a definitive source of myths and legends of Kerala.
(An English language translation of the work has recently been published under the title Lore and Legends of Kerala.
This he tried to prevent by arranging, with the help of the king, to have the girl enclosed in a box and floated down a river with a nail stuck into her head.
Finding a beautiful and charming little girl inside the box and accepting it as a divine gift he adopted her as his own daughter and helped her groom up accordingly.
Knowing this to be the work of the host's daughter and fully convinced of her superior intellect Vararuci expressed his desire to marry her.
One day while conversing with his wife about their past lives he accidentally saw a nail stuck in her head and he immediately knew her to be the girl whom he caused to be floated down a river.
He realised the impossibility of altering one's fate and resolved to go on a pilgrimage with his wife bathing in rivers and worshiping at temples.
In one such legend, Pākkanār tries to dissuade a group of Brāhmans who had resolved to go to Benares from so doing, by telling them that the journey to the sacred city would not be of productive of salvation.
To prove the fruitlessness of the journey, he plucked a lotus flower from a stagnant pool and gave it to the Brāhmans and instructed them to give it to a hand which would rise from the Ganges and to say that it was a present for Goddess Ganga from Pākkanār.
While half awake and half asleep Vararuci happened to overhear a conversation of the Vanadevatas resting on the tree regarding the fate of a newly born Paraiah infant girl and they were telling each other that the poor Brāhman who does not know that the verses beginning with "māṃ viddhi.." is the most important verse in Ramayana would marry her.
The king was very pleased and Vararuci prevailed upon Vikramiditya to destroy all pariah infant girls recently born in a certain locality.
To ensure that nobody else would hear the story, Parvati had ordered that nobody be allowed to enter the place where they were and Nandi (The Vehicle of Lord Shiva) kept guard at the door.
Parvati became enraged and told Shiva: "Thou didst tell me any extraordinary tale, for Jaya knows it also."
Shiva, due to his meditational powers, immediately knew the truth and told Parvati of the role of Pushpadanta in leaking the story to Jaya.
Goddess Durga, being pleased with his austerities, ordered him in a dream to go to the forests of the Vindhya to behold Kāṇābhūti.
Proceeding to Vindhya, he saw, surrounded by hundreds of Piśāchas, that Paiśācha Kāṇābhūti, in stature like a śāla tree.
When Kāṇābhūti finished his story, Vararuchi remembered his origin, and exclaimed like one aroused from sleep: "I am that very Pushpadanta, hear that tale from me."
