Setubandha

SR No.: 001384
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 812
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_English & Literature
File Size: 14 MB

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(b)
Generally speaking, the Setubandha is written in a style that lacks the lucidity of Kalidasa, and has greater affinity to Bharavi's style in the Kiratarjuniya. A comparison of the Setu verse 1.13 and Raghu 11.20 illustrates the contrast between Pravarasena and Kalidasa in the use of the conceits of Kavya poetry. Both poets figure Rama as Manmatha or the god of love. Referring to the killing of Taḍaka by Rama, Kalidasa says that the demoness, hit in the heart by the arrow of Rama-Manmatha, went to the abode of 'the lord of her life' (javiteśa), meaning consort as well as the god of death. The imagery is complex enough in Kālidāsa, but it is more complicated in Pravarasena, who describes the killing of Valin by Rāma and Sugri va's succession to the throne by saying that the goddess of royal sovereignty, pierced in her Vali-heart by the arrow of RaghavaManmatha, accepted Sugrīva as her lover. The verse is a good example of the intricacy which at times characterizes the style of the Setubandha; but it is by no means typical of the usual manner of Pravarasena. The Setubandha contains other elaborately constructed Rūpakas that are vivid and interesting (e.g., 1. 14, 16, 18, 22, 24, 29; 7.1). Of these two are given as examples of different kinds of Rūpakas in the Sarasvatikaṇṭhābharana of Bhoja.
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INTRODUCTION
A conspicuous feature of the style of the Setubandha is the use of numerous long compounds in the poem. There are at least sixtyfour verses, in which both the halves are composed of single compounds so that each verse is no more than a pair of sesquipedalian compounds2. These are usually descriptive verses often presented in groups, and nearly
1
Setu 1.14 as an example of paramparārāpaka and 1.22 as that of adhāravat rūpaka. See SK 4.29, 41. NS ed. 1925.
2 See Cantos 2,5,7,8,9.11,13,14,15.