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________________ SANSKRIT AND PRAKRIT MAHAKAVYAS 361 hearts, without any effort on their part." For some of the ideas on anantya, the endlessness of poetic themes Anandavardhana is indebted to Vakpati. The Setubandha (SB) of Pravarasena is extolled by Dandin and Bana as the best of the mahakavyas written in Prakrit. (c. 1st half of the 5th century). It relates the tale of Rama from the advance against Ravana and the building of the bridge to Lanka down to Ravana's death in conformity with, generally speaking, the Valmiki Ramayana--Kalidasa's Raghuvamsa (RV) written probably half a century earlier, has exercised its influence on the Setubandha. But the two works are different in some respects. RV recounts the careers of many kings of a dynasty including the entire story of Rama whereas SB deals only with a portion of the early career of Rama. The descriptions in RV are strictly subordinated to the narrative. In SB they are more extensive and dominate the narrative unlike in Kalidasa. In SB (Canto 10) Pravarasena introduces elaborate pictures of the evening scenery and the moonlit landscape and the joys of wine and love with the abhisarikas playing their customary role. Nothing like this sequence of descriptions is found in Kalidasa; portrayal of the amorous activities of the nayikas aided by their maiden messengers--this theme is introduced by Pravarasena, probably for the first time, in the structure of a mahakavya. Handique has observed well when he says 12 : "The Raghuvamsa treats a very wide subject within a relatively narrow compass (nineteen Cantos). The Setubandha, though much more limited in scope, has as many as fifteen; while the mahakavyas of Bharavi and Magha, in spite of the greater brevity of their themes, have eighteen and twenty Cantos respectively. In the evolution of the mahakavya the Setubandha thus marks the stage at which the descriptions begin to preponderate at the expense of the narrative, and illustrates the transition from Kalidasa to the poems of Bharavi and Magha." "The topics introduced by Pravarasena into the tenth Canto of his poem appear in toto in Bharavi's Kiratarjuniya (Canto 9) in the same sequence as in the Setubandha. They were taken over by Magha from Bharavi, and expanded into two Cantos of the sisupalavadha (9-10), and soon became stereotyped in the Sanskrit mahakavya.... The affinity of the Setubandha to the Sanskrit mahakavyas is no doubt one of the causes of its popularity through the centuries." And further more : "The Setubandha contains a considerable number of verses of ethical import; but we miss in it the many pithy sayings found in the Sanskrit mahakavyas, usually at the end of a verse that are formally called Stud.-46 Jain Education International www.jainelibrary.org For Private & Personal Use Only
| SR No. | 001868 |
| Book Title | Studies in Jain Literature |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | V M Kulkarni |
| Publisher | Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre |
| Publication Year | 2001 |
| Total Pages | 114 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Literature, & Story |
| File Size | 14 MB |