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A CRITICAL STUDY
marriage and the way in which the later Kavyas etc. use the Puranic legends sufficiently illustrate the above tendencies. We cannot expect the zealous follower to ridicule in any way the Puranic legends or to raise a moral protest against the sins in the world of gods, held by him in reverence. That Kannada poet Sarvajña is an exception. He has spared none from his severe satirical stings. According to him our Mahabharata is a tale of brothers killing brothers and of looseness of marriage institution (hädara); and those who respectfully attend to it degrade themselves.
Haribhadra's attack, in the Dhurtakhyāna, is directed against such legends found in the epics and Purāņas. His conclusion is threefold: the popular scriptures, when one scrutinizingly studies them, are found to contain worthless stuff that looks smooth only from outside (V. 120); the legends narrated in them do not stand the test of rational scrutiny and are unacceptable like artificial gold (V. 119); and the pious, who believed in them so far, should abandon them and follow the path of Sarvajña (V. 121). Indirectly, but inevitably, these works being religious scriptures, the entire Puranic religion and its followers are being exposed to criticism; the former for having contained such legends and the latter for their acceptance of the same.
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Logical polemics and witty criticism are the two recognised modes of attack; their ultimate purpose is to knock down the opponent; but their ways and intermediate tactics are different, and the weapons in their armouries and their movements on the field are dissimilar. The former necessarily requires an elaborate and systematic seige and a trained audience to pronounce the judgement; while the latter needs alert wit and adroit movements. If one is a trenched battle, the other is a guerilla warfare. The success of the former leaves behind acrimony that might involve endless attacks and counter attacks; but that of the latter wounds the opponent without leaving a scar and pricks him without bleeding. Logicians can be trained for the purpose, but a witty critic is an artist by birth.
Haribhadra is an eminent logician, no doubt; but, in this work, on the whole, we see him more as a witty critic assailing the citadel of Puranic legends. The plot of the work is simple. It is a story of five rogues each of whom recounts an impossible, fantastical experience which is confirmed to be true by one or the other colleague after quoting parallels from the Mahabharata, Rāmāyaṇa, etc. In the last chapter this mode of presentation is slightly modified. It is their female accomplice that narrates her experiences; and the remaining take their respective chances to confirm the same by Puranic parallels. She narrates her biography, and suddenly puts them on the horns of a dilemma: if they accept her statement, they have to submit to her as slaves; and if they refuse, they have to give a feast to the whole gathering. They find that they are outwitted; her superiority is accepted; she trickily extracts wealth from a merchant by charging him with the murder of her child; and all the rogues get a grand feast from her. To this plot, which is mainly
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