Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

Page 26

1. SOMADEVA AND HIS AGE
the story of Yasodhara, and Nayakumāracariu or the story of Nāgakumāra, both under the patronage of Bharata's son and successor Nanna. Puspadanta wrote in Apabhramba verse, and is one of the most important Jaina poets in that language so far discovered; and his prodigious literary activity bears witness to the flourishing condition of Apabhramsa literature in the tenth century. Harişeņa? who wrote his Dharmapariksă in Apabhramsa in 988 A. D. mentions three distinguished Apabhramśa poets : Puşpadanta, Svayambhu and Caturmukha; and Puşpadanta himself refers to Svayambhu and Caturmukha in his Mahāpurāna 1.9. The works of SvayambhuPaümacarir and Ritthanemicariu-are available in manuscript, and his son Tribhuvana Svayambhu was also a poet and made substantial additions to his father's poems. Svayambhu may be assigned to the eighth or ninth century, as he mentions Ravişeņa, the author of Padmacarita (seventh century), in his Païmacariu, and is himself mentioned by Puspadanta. Caturmukha is earlier than Svayambhu, as the latter mentions him in his Ritthanemicariu, and other works. It is also noteworthy that a number of other Apabhramsa poets is cited by Svayambhu in another work of his, a treatise on Prosody called Svayambhu-chanda. There was thus a welldefined literary tradition in Apabhramsa in and before Somadeva's time; and there is no doubt that he was to some extent influenced by the prevailing current of Apabhramsa poetry, as he has used various Apabhramsa metres with considerable skill in a number of verses of his Yasastilaka. The use of Apabhramsa metres in Sanskrit verse is a novel experiment on the part of a writer who sets out to write classical Sanskrit in the style of Subandhu and Bāna, but it shows the wide range of Somadeva's literary equipment and his interest in the vernacular literature of the time. Further, in spite of the divergent character of the works of Somadeva and Puşpadanta, they seem to have occasionally drawn on common sources for some at least of the literary material handled by them. The story of Yasodhara itself is one such example; while the tale of Jamadagni and the two birds, and that of Sribhūti and Bhadramitra related by Somadeva as independent stories in Yasastilaka, Books VI and VII, occur in Puşpadanta's Mahāpurāna (LXV. 13 ff. and LVII. 7 ff.) as part of a larger scheme of Jaina religious and mythological stories,
1 For details see the Introductions to the critical editions of these works. The first
two are edited by Dr. Vaidya and the third by Prof. Jain. 2 Annals of the B. O, R.I., XXIII, 592-608; Pt. Premi's Jaina Sahitye aura Itihasa,
p. 326. 3 चउमुहु सयंभु सिरिहरिसु दोणु णालोइउ कइ ईसाणु बाणु । 4 See Pt. Premi's article on Svayambhu in his Jaina Sahitya aura Itihāsa. 5 See below Chapter VII. 6 See below Chapter XVI,