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 125

86
KUVALAYAMĀLĀ
udgīti, see vigāthā: 26.18
upagiti: 9.12 (see Notes), 25.16
ullala (with 27 mātrās in each foot, with a pause after the 15th): 6.11 vandanaka, see samkulaka
vigāthā, see udgīti
vipulă (only a speciality of the gathā): 29.13, 15, 21; 30.18, 22; 31.6, 22; 32.26, 33.6, 21; 42.25 (?), 45.10, 146.21, 161.18, 166.16, 211.25, 238.1.
Besides the above, which could be identified more or less with the known types, there remain some unidentified metrical forms: 6.9, 6.17, 12.21, 30.27, 31.26, 54.8, 127.11 and 236.12.
11. THE KUVALAYAMALA INFLUENCED BY EARLIER WORKS
It is seen above (pp. 76 f.) how Uddyotana respectfully refers to a number of earlier authors and works. He is widely read, and consequently he has enriched his composition with a vast range of information and a variety of contexts many of which are inherited from earlier works, consciously or sub-consciously. Uddyotana's reference to the Taramgavai with an adjective cakkaya-juvalasuhaya has in view the central idea of that romance which gives the biography of a beautiful nun, Tarangavatī by name, more or less a contemporary of Mahāvīra. The original work of Padalipta with plenty of Deśī words is no more available; but what we possess today is only a digest in Prakrit, (samkhitta-) Taramgavai, also called Taramgalolā, in 1642 Prakrit stanzas'. The concluding verse yields no satisfactory meaning: the author may be Nemicandra (or his pupil Jasa or Yasas, in case he is not only copying it for his teacher), the pupil of Virabhadra. Comparing the Kuvalayamālā (Km) with the Taramgalolā (T), it is seen, Uddyotana directly or indirectly owes some contexts to Padalipta. The motif of jati-smaraṇa plays an important role in T which further illustrates that the law of Karman is inviolable, that none escapes the consequences of one's own thoughts, words and acts, and that renunciation is the only panacea against all the ills of Samsara. These items are found in plenty in Km as well. Both are Dharma-kathas, though Km, on account of its varied contexts, has assumed the form of samkirṇa-kathā. Princes and girls from distinguished families are trained in various Kalās (T 8.17; Km 22. 1-10). The thoughts of onlookers while Tarangavatī (T 15) was passing by the road in a chariot have close resemblance with a similar scene in Km (182.4 ff.). The religious and cultural background is identical in both T and Km; and the tendency to introduce religious details is quite patent in both the texts (T 83.18 f.; Km 142.21 f.; see Intro. pp. 68 f.). The effects of purva-kṛta-karman are often elaborated (T81.79 f.;
1 E. LEUMANN: Die Nonne, Taramgalolā (from Mss.) Translated into German, Zeitschrift für Buddhismus, III, pp. 193 ff., 272 ff., München 1921. N. I. PATEL: LEUMANN'S German Essay Translated into Gujarati and included as a Supplement in the Jaina Sahitya Samsodhaka, II. 2, Poona 1924. The Text in Prakrit is published in the Sri-Nemivijñāna-Granthamālā, No. 9, Surat 1944. Though said to be based on five Mss., the text presented is far from satisfactory. A critical edition of this beautiful romance is an urgent desideratum. Some mature Prakrit scholar has to undertake it.