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 127

88
KUVALAYAMĀLĀ
himself in the temple of Rşabha and Kanakaprabhā and party worshipping the Jina (Km $ 200 very much resembles the one in P where Janaka hides himself and Candragati offers the Pūjā (28.44 f). It is interesting that both Kuvalayacandra and Janaka were flown by a miraculous horse. Certain descriptions in both the works show resemblance and even common ideas and expressions: description of the Vimäna (P 14.89 & Km 92.21 f.); of hemanta (P 31.42 f. & Km 169.19 f.); of the forest with a long Dandaka metre (P 53.79-80 & Km 28.11 f.); of battle (P 53-107 & Km 10.7 f. rather short etc.) Both the authors have much traditional knowledge, more or less common; and onomatopoetic expressions are used by both.
Uddyotana refers to Jadiya (=Jadila or Jatila) and his Varāngacarita' which is available in print and is specifically called a dharma-kathā. The Varāngacarita (V) and Kuyalayamālā (Km) have a number of common points. The story in both starts in the metropolis Vinītā. The heroes in both, Varānga and Kuvalayacandra, are carried away into wilderness by a horse (though the antecedents of the event are different with them). What Varadatta preaches to Dharmasena (V v-ix) runs quite parallel to what Dharmanandana discourses to Purandaradatta (Km SS 75-84). If Varānga inquires about samyaktva and mithyātva (V xi), the minister wants to know about the causes etc. of saṁsāra (Km $ 86 f.). Both Varānga and Purandaradatta (V xi, Km 91.21-2) accept the vows of a Śrāvaka. Varānga as well as Kuvalayacandra (Vivx, Km 135.27 f.) fight the Bhillas and oblige a merchant. The lamentations of the parents etc. consequent on the prince being carried away by the horse are expressed in similar terms (V xv, Km 155.21 f.). Both the heroes enjoy rich pleasures on their return to the capital. Both V and Km are basically. dharma-kathās (though the latter form of a samkīrṇa-kathā), and as such they are impregnated with Jaina dogmatical discourses and religious sermons. The topics tabulated in the Introductions of both (V pp. 29 f. and Km pp. 68 f.) bear close similarity; and in different contexts also they possess dogmatical details which deserve mutual comparison.
Though there is so much similarity between V and Km, some striking differences deserve to be noted. Prince Varānga reminds us of Rāma both of whom have to leave home on account of the jealousy of a step-mother; and his consequent sufferings are a clear testimony of the law of Karma which the author demonstrates to be supreme. But after all it is the tale of one life only unlike the journey of five souls over a number of births in Km. The V has a simple thread of the story, while in the Km it is a highly complicated network in which a number of other episodes are interwoven. If V is a dharma-kathā following the pattern of a mahākāvya in Sanskrit, the Km is a narrative mosaic of great magnitude, apparently Campū in form, but a veritable kathā-bandha or -prabandha of the samkīrna type, in Prākrit, with touches of different dialects given here and there out of curiosity and for popularity.
Uddyotana looks upon Haribhadra as his Guru in Jaina (samaya-saya-sattha) scriptures as well as in yukti-stāstra or pramāņa-and-Nyāya. He is aware of
1 A. N. UPADHYE: Jatā-Simhanandi's Varāngacarita, Māņikachandra D. Jaina Granthamālā, No. 40, Bombay 1938.