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 8

To illustrate the metres defined in his Svayambhūcchandas Svayambhū has given 324 citations. Of these some 50 are given, all in the Ap. sections anonymously, while the rest are given under the name of their authors whose total number is 90. It can be reasonably assumed that authors of the anonymous citatinos was Svayanbhū himself and this assumption is supported by the fact that 10 anonymous citations could be identified from the Paumacariya.
Svayambhủ was well-versed in various Šāstras. He had imbibed the best from the earlier Sanskrit and Prakrit literary traditions. He was gifted with great poetic powers. Although his two Purānic epics on the themes of Rāmāyaṇa and Bhārata (or Pāņdava-caritra) were already preceded by several Sanskrit and Prakrit works of epic length on the same themes, and although he owed much to Ravişeņa's Padmacarita for his Paumacariya, and to Caturmukha and earlier Pāņdava-purāņas (inluding Jinasena's Harivamśapurana) for his Ritthanemicariya (and he acknowledges this openly)., he shows a high degree of originality and power in the over-all design and arrangement of his poems, in the sensitive treatment of incident and emotion and in effective handling of descriptions, imagery and metrical structures. His systematic treatment of Prakrit and A pabhramsa netres in the Svayambūcchandas, besides indicating his mastery of the subject, bears the stamp of a practising artist. The numerous illustrative citations he has given reveal his close familiarity with the large body of Prakrit and Ap. poetry of his times. It is no wonder, therefore, that Hemacandra's authoritative treatise on Prakrit prosody (and possibly his Prakrit grammar also) depended heavily on Svayambhū's pioneering works.
Svayambhū very well deserved the titles Kavirāja, Vidvān, and Chandaścūļāmaņi mentioned in the eulogies showered on him by Tribhuvana, who always refers to his father, reverentially as Svayambhūdeva. Numerous later Apabhramsa poets also have pard glowing tributes to Svayambhū.