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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Our Prakrit poem, the Lilāvai attributed to Kutühala, is to be distinguished from all the above works having indentical titles.1 It is a secular and romantic poem mostly in Prakrit gathās, with a few prose sentences and verses in other metres; and it is written in Māhārāṣṭri dialect. It is neither specifically religious nor moral in purpose, though it is not altogether devoid of those traces. It is a romantic tale dealing with the marriage of Hala and Lilavati, the king of Asmaka and the princess of Simhala. The main scene of story is laid on the bank of Godavari near its confluence with the ocean. Its author is more a poet than a preacher; and he has often tried to adorn his expression and style with poetic embellishments. Some of the characters are typical and show the 'author's acquaintence with the works of Kalidāsa, Subandhu, Bāņa and others. So far as we know, it is the earliest work having the title Lilavati. Among the Prakrit poems it occupies a distinctive position on account of its racy narration and stylistic expression.
c) Form, Structure and Atmosphere
According to the author himself, this Līlāvati is a Katha (see especially gathās 22, 41-2, 1329, 1333) of the divya-mānuṣa type, i.e., in which the characters are both divine and human, the remaining two types being divya and mănușa.
The earlier rhetoricians divide the Sanskrit prose romance into two types, Akhyāyikā and Katha; some later authors would allow a Katha to be written in Prakrit gāthās as well; and Hemacandra has actually mentioned Lilavati as a Katha in verse. So it is necessary to see what the various characteristics of Akhyāyikā and Katha' are, and to what extent those of the latter are fulfilled by this Lilavati.
INTRODUCTION
1
The Jinaratnakośa by Prof. H. D. Velankar (Poona 1914) has eight entries in connection with the Lilavati. Counting them in the serial order, 2nd and 4th possibly and 5th clearly refer to Kutühala's Lilavati; 3rd and 8th refer to the Prakrit poem by Jineśvara and its Sanskrit digest by Jinaratna noted above; 6th and 7th refer to the Kannada romance. No. 1. Lilavati composed in Sam. 1736 by Lalacandra, pupil of Santiharsa Vacaka, appears to be an independent work. There are some Old-Gujarati Rasas bearing the title Lilavati but they need not be reviewed here. There is a MS. of this name in the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, No. 620 of 1885-98.
2 S. K. De: The Akhyāyika and Katha in classical Sanskrit, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, III, iii, pp. 507-17. I have derived substantial help from this paper.