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 153

114
KUVALAYAMALA
was styled as dohdahi in Persian. In India it was called Bārahvānī (bārahi vannīya) as in Dravya-parīkņā, 17 (Jodhpur 1961) of Thakkura Pheru, i.e., gold refined to the twelfth degree which was regarded as the standard gold (bhittikanaka). In the pre-Muslim period, the highest purity was of sixteen degree, and such gold was called soờasa-varņaka (Kāvyamīmāṁsā of Rājasekhara, Saka 900, chapter 17) which must have been the jacca-suvanna of Uddyotanasūri. We also find reference to şodasa-varna gold in the Mānasollāsa (yat syāt sodasavarṇākhyam kose sthāpyam tad eva hi, 1.2.398, Mysore ed. p. 797) from which was derived the Hindi word solaha vānī which in Rājasthānī became solamo sono referred to as solen in the Jñānesvarī (1290 A.D.). For more details see my article: The highest purity of gold in India, (The Journal of the Numesmatic Society of India, Vol. 16, pp. 270-74). This seems same as the s'rngī-kanaka mentioned in the Kādambari ( 85).
On page 2.9 occurs a list of peoples in a country in which persons are born: i.e., Saka, Yavana, Barbara (the Negro tribe), Kirāta, Khasa, Pārasa (the Persian name given to the Sassanian rulers upto their extinction by Muslims in the 7th century and continued even later), Bhilla, Muramda (a branch of the Saka which the author must have borrowed from some vårņaka list, since there were no Muramdas left in the 8th century A.D.), Odda, Bokkasa (a mythical tribe called Bhokas in medieval Hindu literature), Sabara, Pulimda and Simghala.
On pp. 3.18-4.12, Uddyotanasūri gives the names of a number of Kathās and their authors, in Sanskrit, Prākrit and Apabhramba, i.e., Pādalipta and his Tarangavati, Hāla (Sālāhana) and his Kośa, the club of poets known by the term Chappaņņaya, Brhatkathā of Guņādhya, Vyāsa and Vālmīki to whom we owe Bhārata and Rāmāyaṇa: that was the usual practice of all writers like Subandhu, Bāņa, Dandin, Haribhadra, Svayambhū etc. We are able to know the names of about fifty works including romances. Dr. A. N. UPADHYE has dealt with these in his paper entitled Works and Authors referred to in the Kuvalayamālā of Uddyotanasūri' submitted to the A.I.O.C. Session at Gauhati. There is an important reference to a story book named Supurisacariya written by Devagupta of the Gupta dynasty.
The poet mentions five kinds of Kathās (4.5): Sayala-kahā, Khamda-kahā, Ullāva-kahā, Parihāsa-kahā etc. His disquisition on the nature of the different Kathās according to the metres, topics, serious or humourous, and style of writing is very enlightening and shows the richness of Kathā literature during his time. It is noteworthy that the topics of these were cast into the mould of the Rāsa literature that carried forward the Kathā-sāhitya in Apabhramsa Avahațțā, Old-Gujarātī, Old-Rājasthānī, etc. and later in Avadhī, Brja-bhāṣā and Rājasthānī languages. It is a fascinating subject worthy of classified investigation.
It was customary with the poets beginning from Kālidāsa, Bāņa etc. to prefix their narration with an account of durjana-nindā and sajjana-prasaṁsā; and Uddyotanasūri too has done the same at some length. Kālidāsa gives it in the minimum way, while Gosvāmi Tulasīdāsa at much length. Uddyotanasūri gives durjana-nindā in nineteen lines and sajjana-prasaṁsā in fifteen lines. Several of the epithets of this topic were common; so, in that, he has followed a conventional description of varnaka nature.