________________ 466 STUDIES IN JAIN LITERATURE specimens of ancient songs of Indians dealing with the joys and sorrows of their lives but only artistic poems closely modelled on them. Next to the gathas portraying love in its various aspects we have some lovely pictures of nature. We also get a few glimpses of the town and court life as some of the gathas are composed by kings and their court poets. The anthology is rich in maxims and popular sayings and sheds light on the customs and conventions prevalent in those times. There are allusions to divine beings like Siva, Parvati, Gauri, Ganapati, Visnu, Laksmi, etc. and to mythological events from the epics. The references to Vindhya, Sahya and Goda indicate that the locality of the composition of the majority of these gathas, is the Deccan, particularly Maharastra 26. (b) Ravanavijaya (now lost) : Although this kavya is ranked by Bhoja, and after him, by Hemacandra, as high as Harivijaya and Setubandha, nothing is known about its author or its contents beyond a solitary citation27 by Bhoja in his Srigaraprakasa and after him by Hemacandra in his Kavyanusasana. (c) Sarvasena's Harivijaya 28 (now lost) : Sarvasena composed his Harivijaya in the first half of the fourth century A. D.,29 about a hundred years earlier than the Setubandha. Eminent Sanskrit Alamkarikas, viz. Anandavardhana and Kuntaka 30 speak appreciatively of his Harivijaya, and Bhoja draws verses copiously from it to illustrate various points of poetics in the course of his writing Sarasvatikanthabharana and Srngaraprakasa. Bhoja in his Srrgaraprakasa and following him, Hemacandra in his Kavyanusasana give us the following information about this work : It was fasvasakabandha.' Its prevailing metre was Skandhaka, (and 'Galitakas' were employed at the end of the Asvasakas.) It was marked by the word 'utsaha' in the last verse of each Asvasaka. It contained descriptions of city, mountain, seasons, the sunset, the hero, his vehicle, Garutmat (= Garuda), his duta Satyakah (? Satyakih, his (Hari's) march, (against Indra) for securing the Parijata tree, his rise in the form of the conquest of the enemy who himself surrenders, drink party and the removal of Satyabhama's jealous anger by effort (by Hari by winning from Indra the Parijata tree and planting it in front of Satyabhama's palace. By a study of the verses quoted by Anandavardhana and Bhoja from this epic we gather the following information regarding its story : Hari is the hero of this epic. Rukmini is the senior (iyestha) and exalted (udatta) heroine (nayika). Satyabhama is the junior (kanistha) and haughty (uddhata) heroine. Hari offers a garland of fragrant flowers of the celestial Parijata tree to Rukmini. This arouses the jealousy of Satyabhama. Her face, For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org Jain Education International