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 62

INTRODUCTION
35
lokini-phalaka; Madanamañjari's love towards the prince, and his consequent transformation into a Kurabaka tree through her curse.
The Vasavadattă possesses a slender thread of narrative, superimposed and adorned with rhetorical embellishments which cover a major portion and overweigh the story element. Subandhu has composed this romance to exhibit his excellence in handling slesa or paranomasia. Nemicandra's Līlāvati, however, has a wider ambition and distinct background. Nemicandra is shaping his composition on the model of earlier Campū-kavyas naturally, seasonal, regional and topical descriptions are introduced abundantly. The references to Jaina temples, images, monks and nuns add a good bit of religious flavour to this primarily secular romance. The supernatural element is supplied by the Vidyādharas and the use of miraculous powers here and there. The intervention of divine Padmāyati is essentially an influence of popular religion of Karnāțaka.
The most ticklish question is whether Nemicandra was aware of the Prakrit poem Lilăvati in calling his romance by that name. The evidence is not quite weighty to enable us to arrive at a definite conclusion. In general one feels that Nernicandra might be knowing the Prakrit poem, the title of which has lent itself to his work. Not only he is acquainted with the models of classical Sanskrit, but he appears to be also a close student of Prakrit language and literature. He has composed a couple of Prakrit verses' in this Campū; and the episode of the magician Māyābhujamga is based on that of Bhairavānanda in the Karpūramañjari of Rājasekhara. The fact that Trivikrama quotes from the Līlāvati points to the possibility that in Karnataka, to which Nemicandra belongs, and in the adjoining country, the Mss. of Lilävati might have been current at the time of Nemicandra. Though the parallels are not quite close, some situations remind us of those in the Līlāvati. The river Gandhanadi, the image of Ambikā and the temple of Jina on its bank, and a Jaina saint staying there : all these remind us of the river Godāvari, Bhavāni's temple and the Nagna Pasupata residing there, in the Lilāvati. The hero receives some guidance from an ascetic in both. More than once the rôle of Padmāvati resembles that of Bhavāni or Pärvati. The necklace exchanged between the lovers figures in both the works. These points indicate that it is probable that Nemicandra had a casual acquaintance with the Präkrit poem Lilāyati.
1 See p. 30, footnote 5 above. 2 See notes on Gatha Nos. 4 and 24 at the end.