Studies in Jain Literature

SR No.: 001868
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

Page 502

484 STUDIES IN JAIN LITERATURE evoking the beautiful sentiment of srngara. Impersonality is a striking feature of this love poetry in Prakrit. In his Introduction to An Anthology of Sanskrit Court Poetry Daniel H. H. Ingalls makes the following observation : "In the five hundred or so verses that deal with love in Vidyakara's anthology one will not find the name of a single lover. In Vidyakara's section on villains one finds no villain's name; in the section on good men no individual good man is so identified that we could know him from other good men. We know nothing of the personal lives of Sanskrit poets. The persons here have melted into the types of poet. One may remark that impersonality appears in its extreme form in India only in Sanskrit." This observation of H. H. Ingalls with reference to Sanskrit love poetry in Subhasitaratnakosa is equally true of Prakrit love poetry as represented in Gathasaptasati, Vajjalaggam and other Prakrit anthologies. This preference for the theme of love and the erotic sentiment should be easy to understand on psychological grounds : Love is the most dominant of all feelings, and is easily within the experience of allo. Anandavardhana was fully conversant with human psychology so well expressed by Bhamaha : "They (say, princes undergoing instruction or pupils in general) study sastras if they are mixed with sweet pleasurable rasa. Children who first lick honey easily take a bitter dose of medicine."97 Keeping in mind this aspect of human psychology Anandavardhana most probably chose to cite erotic Prakrit gathas to illustrate the theory of dhvani and its varieties. His lead is enthusiastically followed by later alamkarikas, particularly by Bhoja who cited in his two alamkara works about two thousand Prakrit verses. 14. Prakrit Poetry highly erotic but not obscene : In some quarters it is alleged that the alamkarikas cite Prakrit verses which are full of obscenity and vulgarity and which glorify illicit or clandestine love, as illustrations because the obscenity remains hidden under the garb of the Prakrit language. This allegation, on the face of it, is false. For the very purpose of citing illustrations is defeated if the verses are unintelligible. The fact is that in the classical period there was no compartmentalisation or bifurcation of studies into Sanskrit and Prakrit. The long-standing practice of writing dramas in Sanskrit and Prakrit will easily bear out this statement. Again, eminent Sanskrit writers like Bana, Dandi, Kuntaka, Anandavardhana, Bhoja have paid handsome tributes to Hala Satavahana, Sarvasena, Pravarsena for their exquisite Prakrit works. This fact corroborates, the statement that there was integration of Sanskrit and Prakrit studies. Naturally, the alamkarikas