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 164

A CULTURAL NOTE
125
place of Vijayāpurī which was thus a big cosmopolitan town where merchants from all over the country displayed their goods. This reminds us of Ujjainī where the citizens knew the languages and scripts of many countries as stated by Bāņa in the Kādambari (sarva-desa-bhāṣā-lipijña).
Page 157.2: The situation of Vijayāpuri is given as south sea coast (dāhiņasamudda-velā). Vijayāpurī was actually situated on the bank of Krishna [?] a few miles above the sea coast upto a point the river was navigable to big ships which landed on docks. The distance from Ayodhyā to Vijayāpurī was mapped out in successive stages and covered in one month and three days (ekkam māsam tinni vāsārattassa) (157.11).
Page 160.13: There is a reference to stencil cutting in which a figure of Rājahamsī and the name of prince Kuvalayacandra were reproduced. It was one of the seventytwo arts. The price Kuvalayacandra himself cut a stencil design of a water pond with haṁsa, sārasa, cakravāka, nalinī, satapatra, bhramara and also cut a Gāthā verse on it (169.8).
Page 170.21 f.: Twentyfour items are mentioned in connection with the marriage of Kuvalayamālā, for instance, pounding of grain, arranging the palace, building high pavillion, colouring of the fire altar (vedī), decorating the floor of the interior of the palace, white-washing the wall, making ornaments of gold, sowing of barley off-shoots in wide mouthed pots for decorating the Vedi (as mentioned in the Harşacarita on the occasion of Rājyaśrī's marriage), sewing of Kūrpāsaka garments (as sleeveless or half-sleeved for female body), hanging of buntings and flags, making of beautiful fly-whisks and bundles of peacock feathers.
Page 171.1 f.: There is a beutiful description of marriage festivities; and the author has chosen for it a new metre of the Amstadhvani type carrying the last part of the foregoing stanza into the first part of the succeeding stanza II.18 f.).
Page 173.31 f.: We have here a conventionalised description of sea as it was visible from the top of the Vijayāpurī palace.
Page 175.10: Here is a reference to Jaina Säsana in which the word Jaina has been used for the teaching of religion of the Tīrthakaras. During the 7th century, in the writings of Bāņa, the terms Jina, Jinendra, Jinanātha and Jaina were used with reference to Buddha and Buddhism, and the same is the case in the Amarakosa and the Lalitavistara, etc. It is an open question as to when for the first time the word Jaina was used in its present meaning.
Page 185.21 f.: Here follows a description of two printed scrolls, one illustrating the Jaina conception of Samsāracakra and the other of Bhavāntaras. The Samsāracakra was also painted by Buddhists on a ceiling at Ajanta. It is stated in Divyāvadāna that Bhavacakra was painted in the dvāra-prakoştha or the entrance of the royal palace. It is little surprising that the different parts of the painting were explained by being pointed out with a long stick. The Saṁsāracakra illustrated the three worlds of hell, human world and the world of gods.
In the portion about the various hells, the beings undergoing sufferings were also painted: The figure of a king riding on a horse and going for hunting; then the various animals trembling for fear of impending death; then