Ritthnemichariyam Part 2

SR No.: 001427
Original Sutra Author: Swayambhudev
Author: Ramnish Tomar, Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1993
Total Pages: 220
Language: Prakrit, Apabhransh
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Story
File Size: 9 MB

Page 7

this being also the name of his işta-devatā, namely Brahmā (who is also called Caturmukha ). Except a few verses cited by Svayambhū, nothing of Caturmukha's volunimous poems is preserved to us. Regarding his date, it can be only said that he flourished prior to the later half of the ninth century.
Svayambhū Svayambhū was a major Apabhramśa poet and scholar who flourished towards the last quarter of the 9th century A. D. Caturmukha, Svayambhū and Puşpadanta were the formost Apabbramśa poets. Svayambhū was preceded and influencd by Caturmukha, and himself preceded and influenced Puşpadanta. He most probably lived under the early Seuņa ruler Seuņacandra (c. 1880-900 A. D.), whose capital was Seuņapura on the river Sindineri, which is identified with Sinnar in the Nasik district of Mahārāsţra. His parents were Māuradeva and Padmint. He had most probably three wives : Amiavvā (Sk. Amộtāmbā), Āiccambia (Sk. Adityāmbikā) and Suyavvā (Sk. Sștāmbā). They were highly educated, as Svaymbhū has recorded that the first of them helped him in preparing the manuscript copies of his poems. Svayambhu's younger son Tribhuvana too was a poet, and besides writing a poem Pańcamicariya (Sk. Pañcamicarita) in Apabhramśa (now lost), he completed the two epic poems, Paumacariya and Ritthanemicariya left incomplete by his father. Svayambhủ was patronized by Dhananjaya and Dhavalaiya, who were possibly leading merchants or treasurers. According to a later commentator, Svayambhū belonged to the Yāpaniya sect of Jainism.
Of the seven works that can be credited with some certainty to Svayambhủ, only three are extent : Paumacariya, Rithaņemicariya or Harivamsapurāna and Svayambhūcchandas. The lost works include Suddhayacariya, a grammar of Sankrit (?), Prakrit and Apabhramśa, a Dvisandhāna poem (i. e. a poem simultaneously narrating two themes ) and another work (possibly Pamcamicariva or a treatise on Alankāras ).