Kuvalayamala Part 2

SR No.: 002778
Original Sutra Author: Udyotansuri
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1970
Total Pages: 368
Language: Sanskrit, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 12 MB

Page 111

KUVALAYAMĀLĀ
after one is over exerted and is hungry and thirsty; and he refers to Ausattha in this context (114.23 f.). The author has his own ideas about the digestive process inside (228.11 f.); and in one context, he describes graphically the predelivery signs (76.1 f.). Horse riding was quite necessary for princes. Possibly using some manual on Aśvaśāstra, the author enumerates eighteen breeds of horses (23.20-1); and he gives details about some of them with reference to their varna and lāñchana ($ 56.). Here and there, we have dreams and their symbolic interpretations (8 41: 269.7 f.) The Nimitta-jñāna, which is a branch of Srutajñāna, is potent enough to indicate subha and asubha of the past, present and future; and it is illustrated in details ($ 412). Besides the reference to Bhūrjapatra which was used for writing (the script being avara-livi) a love-letter (160.13 f.) there is a graphic and detailed description (a bit dignified) of a palm-leaf Ms. written in Brāhmī-lipi (201.28 f.).
6. Socio-CULTURAL GLIMPSES The Kuvalayamālā bristles with striking social and cultural touches of great interest. The author draws his chief characters from the different well-known layers of the society. By birth Candasoma was a Brahmin; Mānabhata, a Kșatriya; Māyāditya. a Vaisya; Lobhadeva, a Sūdra; and Mohadatta, a prince. The pilgrimage to Gangā and other holy Tirthas was prescribed by the priest as a prāyas'citta against various sins (48 f., 63 f. 72 f.), though not approved of by the author. A typical Tirtha-yātrika is described with reference to his dress and equipments (58.1 f., see also 48.24 f.). A famine or draught of twelve years often led people to migrate for food and prosperity (S202). The author supplies a list of respectable ways of earning wealth (57.22 f., also 191.1 f.) and also of benevolent channels of spending it (65.8 f.). Though Benares had many good and bad openings for earning wealth (57.16 f.), it was Dakṣiṇāpatha, with Pratisthāna as an important town therein, that was looked upon as a prosperous territory by the traders (57.27 f.) whose preparations for a trade-trip and onward travel from camp to camp (65.13 f., 135.21 f., 198.23 f.) are noteworthy. We get a good sketch of the preparation of a traders' fleet; the rituals are interesting; and the various items in the boat deserve special attention (67.1 f.). Often the trade-routes pass through perilous forests (118). In the vicinity of Sahya mountain, there were Pallīs of Bhillas who often robbed the caravans (135.27 f.). Their Pallīs (for instance the Cintāmani, p. 139) seem to be pretty prosperous samnivesas (227). The Bhillas are Mlecchas, but now and then, despite their wild habits (112.21 f.) in contrast to the respectable, they too have their code of behaviour (146.13-7). Traders had their clubs; and the custom at such a club in Soppăraya (i.e., Sopārā, near Bombay) was that the foreign traders narrated their experience and adventures and were honoured there with Gandha, Tāmbūla and Mālya (65.22 f.). These traders exchanged their information as to what commodities were available in different places and where they could be sold with greater profit. Horses were sold in Kosala in return for elephants; betal nuts were exported to Uttaräpatha in exchange for horses; and pearls were exported to eastern country (pürva-desa) in exchange for Camaras, Conchs were available in Dvārakā. From the Barbara-kūla