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

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LĪLĀVAI
Lilavati, a Vithi, of Rama Pāņivāda
Rāma Pāņivada' is well-known now as an eminent author from the Malayalam territory. His literary career is to be assigned to the middle of the 18th century. His Prakrit poems have been lately brought to light. He has composed a Vithi, Lilavati by name.' He introduces himself as the bhagineya of Raghava Panigha, a resident of Mangala-grama. This Vithi, was enacted at the instance of the assembly of Deva Narayana, the then ruling king, in whom Rāma Pāṇivada had a great patron. Its plot can be summarised thus:
The king of Karnataka has a beautiful daughter Lilavati by name. Fearing that his enemies might kidnap her, he keeps her under the protection of Kalavati, the queen of Virapala of Kuntala. Virapala falls in love with Lilavati, and in her turn she is also attached to him. But the jealousy of Kalavati is a hindrance in their way. Viduṣaka aided by Siddhimati Yogisvari brings about the serpant-bite of Kalavatı but he himself takes the guise of a physician and saves the queen. A divine voice asks her to repay her rescue by bestowing Lilavati on the king, and she makes preparations for the royal wedding. In the meantime Tāmrākṣa, a friend of Kalinga king, tries to carry away Lilavati. Virapāla, however, intervenes just in time and kills him with his arrow. Consequently Virapala marries Lilavati to the joy of all, and thus becomes a Cakravartin.
The name of the heroine, lending itself to the title of work, and her bestowal of sovereignty on her beloved, the king of Kuntala, easily remaind us of the Prakrit poem, Lilavati; but we cannot be dogmatic about their relation, because these are popular motifs quite common in earlier Sattakas and Näțikās. It is not unlikey, however, that Rama Pāņivāda, a Prakrit poet as he was, had heard ubout the poem Lilavati, though his Vithi has no significant contents common with it.
1 Rama Panivada's Kamsavaho, ed. by A. N. Upadhye, Bombay 1910.
2 It is lately published in the Journal of the Travancore University Orientat Manuscripts Library, III. 2-3, Trivandrum 1947.
3 Vithi is a type of drama. It has only one act. The numbers of characters is one or two, at the most three. It is full of speeches in the air. The chief sentiment is erotic. Others may be hinted at. In the Lilavatī Sutradhara and Nați are there in the Amukham; while in the play we have only Vidušaka and Raja.