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 96

4. YASASTILAKA AS A PROSE ROMANCE
77
What wise man will carry salt for presenting it to the saltsea ? Then guapAeterna: ' sta #f 794, Book VII, section 32. The sense, as far as can be judged from the context, seems to be that kings are as liberal as Indra in rewarding merit and as strict as Yama in punishing crime. 'राजपरिगृहीतं तृणमपि काञ्चनीभवति' Ibid. : Even a blade of grass belonging to the king becomes as valuable as gold.
ofya ' Book IV, 3778977' Book II, verse 153: The maxim of the blind man and the quail'. ' H SHREE : :' Book III. verse 73. is a variation of the wellknown maxim 3r A fare for ef 90 asta discussed by Jacob (op. cit.), Part I. The following maxims bearing on the character of women occur in Book IV: farzt: g Thua THERE Alley' spa, '31919 Tha Art' ga
HET I 27 galala Anarca:- detsfa gert fait la fet gaat FITT'. The last of these maxims is also cited by Somadeva in Nitivākyāmita : aituri si fara sa कुर्युस्तैरश्वोऽपि पुंयोगः ।.
Somadeva has an eye for the grotesque, as exemplified in his description of the elephant driver in Book IV and the king's spy in Book III, His power to depict the strange and the terrible is illustrated not only in his remarkable picture of Caņdamārī and the Mahābhairava temple in Book I but in the description of the scenes of horror conjured up by a Vidyādhara to disturb the meditation of the sage Manmathamathana, in Book V, and the similar scenes created by two gods to test the steadfastness of Jinadatta and Padmaratha in their austerities, in the first story of Book VI. Disease and disgusting conditions are delineated in the story of Auddāyana in Book VI section 9); while Amrtamati, stricken with leprosy after her crime, is introduced in a verse of Book V. Curious examples of abusive language are found in the story of the Vidyādhara mentioned above, who is discovered in the act of molesting the sage Manmathamathana by the king of the Vidyādharas, and addressed by the latter thus :
अरे कदाचाराचार पराकदुरात्मन् खलपुरोभागिन् विद्याधराधम खेचरखेट विहायोगमयाप्य वियचरखेल हेठ नरकनिवास पापाचार बहुकुमतिभृतचित्त गुणमटह निहीन गन्धर्वलोकापसद मातरिपुरुष.........
Similarly, in the story of Sribhūti in Book VII (section 27), the dishonest priest is rebuked by the king in opprobrious language. The incorporation of the religious and moral tales in Books VI and VII gives the author an opportunity esenting scenes not usually found in Sanskrit prose romances.
1 The translation of the verse in question in chapter XI follows Śrutasāgara's explanation
of the maxim. Vardhamana, on Ganaratnamahodadhi III. 195, explains it differently. See Jacob ( p. cit.), Part I.