Lilavai

SR No.: 002796
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 500
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi, English
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 15 MB

Page 61

34
LĪLĀVAI
Vidya as a result of which he was transformed into a Kurabaka creeper. Lilavati was aggrieved to realize that her beloved was lost in the park. To put an end to her grief, she became ready to commit suicide. Before doing so, she was advised by her friends to embrace the Kurabaka tree which frustrated all their attempts to make it grow and bloom.' She does so, and lo! it is transformed into Kandarpa to the joy of all.
Next day the king Cūdāmaṇi comes to Kusumapura. Lilavati and Kandarpa are there. Śrngarasekhara showers blessings and gifts on his daughter and son-in-law and bids farewell to them. They return to Jayantipura and live there quite happily.
This summary will enable us now to add some critical observations on this Kannada Campu. By calling his heroine Lilavati by another name Vasavadatta, Nemicandra has clearly hinted that his story is based on that of the Vasavadatta of Subandhu, the famous Sanskrit romance, well known for its śleṣa. Nemicandra has used the plot of Subandhu, no doubt; but he has made his own contributions to the elaboration of his story. There are some minor differences in the Sanskrit and Kannada romances: In one the king is called Cintamani, without mentioning his queen, in the other, Cudamani, with his queen Padmavati; in the one the prince is Kandarpa-ketu, in the other, -deva; in the names of female friends there is some difference; the episode of Puspaketu, the Kirāta fight and the hermit's curse are absent in the Kannada romance; in one the heroine is turned into a stone-image, but in the other, into a creeper (as in the Vikramorva. śīyam). Then there are certain episodes, settings, motifs and incidents which are special to the Kannada romance: the introduction of the magician Māyābhujaṁga and his performance; the elaborate boar-hunt; Vasavadatta's birth through the blessings of Padmavati; Vasavadatta would make her beloved a universal sovereign; she paints the portrait of her dream-lover; the guidance of the deity Padmavati; worship of Ambika etc.; miraculous transference of Kandarpa to the apartment of the princess; search for Madana and finding of Kandarpa in the garden; the episode of the Kālāva
1 This idea is based on the poetic convention embodied in the following verse : पादाहतः प्रमदया विकसत्यशोकः, शोकं जहाति बकुलो मुखसीधुसिक्तः । आलिङ्गितः कुरवकः कुरुते विकासमालोकितस्तिलक उत्कलिको विभाति ॥.
2 Ed. R. V. Krishnamachariar, Srirangam 1906; also by Gray with English translation, New York 1913; and see also different Histories of Sanskrit literature for a detailed summary of it.