________________
(xxxix)
The march of the army, fights on the battlefield, description of cities and villages with their festivals, seasons, forests, mountains, sea, tracts of lands, deserts, lakes and rivers, the sunrise and the moonrise, mornings, evenings, nights, nocturnal darkness, sacrificial performance, sex-delights, water-sports, the Poet's auto-biographical-account, mythological episodes etc. and the Poem is named after a historical event of the slaying of the Magadha king. ____ It is, therefore, strange that such a big poem, which fulfils almost all the requirements of a Mahākāvya, should not have its big bulk divided topic-wise into Sargas or Cantos and it is equally surprising that in its concluding Gatha (1209) the Poet should say that “ the life of this great King, purifying, picturesque and unparalleled, will now be narrated. So, listen, ye all." In this connection, it is interesting to note how the Poet was requested by his learned friends sitting with him in an assembly, to describe to them the incident of the slaying of the Gauda king and how every time he put them off by bringing in irrelevant digression with a view to 7A. सर्गबन्धो महाकाव्यमुच्यते तस्य लक्षणम् ।
आशीर्नमस्क्रिया वस्तुनिर्देशो वापि तन्मुखम् ॥ इतिहासकथोद्भूत मितरद्वा सदाश्रयम् । चतुर्वर्गफलायत्तं चतुरोदात्तनायकम् ॥ नगराणवशैलर्तुचन्द्रार्कोदयवर्णनैः । उद्यानसलिलक्रीडामधुपानरतोत्सवैः॥ विप्रलम्भर्विवाहैश्च कुमारोदयवर्णनैः। मन्त्रदूतप्रयाणाजिनायकाभ्युदयैरपि ॥ अलंकृतमसंक्षिप्त रसभावनिरन्तरम् । सगैरनतिविस्तीर्णैः श्रव्यवृत्तः सुसंधिभि: ॥ सर्वत्र भिन्नवृत्तान्तरुपेनं लोकरञ्जनम् । काव्यं कल्पान्तरस्थायि जायते सदलंकृति॥
. काव्यादर्श I. 14-19 .
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