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 80

INTRODUCTION
53
romantic interest of the poem. Vallabhadeva' has referred to Lilāvati as a queen of Salivāhana, but he is silent on the point whether she came from Simhala. The motif of a monarch marrying a princess for extending political power is well-known in early Indian Kathās, and it has served as an interesting theme for the drama. As depicted in the Ratnāvali, king Udayana marries Ratnávali, a princess of Ceylon. The digests of the Brhatkathā? give a tale of Vikramāditya of Ujjaini who marries a beautiful
Madanalekhã, the daughter of Virasena, the king of Simhala." A Pratihăra coming at the royal gate, the victories of his general Vikramasakti and the Simhala ruler willingly sending his daughter to the king : all these situations, in the Kathāsaritsagara, have some similarity with what we read in the Lilāvati. According to Sivadāsa, Trailokyasundara, the son of Salivāhana, had married Padmini, daughter of king Sūryasimha, of Simhala. The idea of marrying a Simhala princess is decidedly attended with some adventure and romance. As yet no other source (than this Lilăvati ) for the marriage of Hāla with a Simhala princess has come to light; but there is sufficient parallel material nearabout which could tempt our author to introduce the plot of the marrige of a Simhala princess with Hala. Thus the poem has secured a decided advantage of adding a romantic relish to the plot and of admitting characters like Mahānumati and Kuvalayavali whose biographies too have a striking human touch about them.
The hero of this poem is thus a Sātavāhana king ; he was ruling at Pratisthana on the Godavari ; he was known by the name Hāla by which Indian literary tradition has made him memorable as the author or compiler of Gāhākoso; he had his teacher and guide in Bhiksu Nāgārjuna; there are many legends about him; and he is depicted as the founder of
1 See above p. 29, footnote No 2. 2 See the Notes on găthả No. 158. 3 Kathåsaritsagara Lambaka 18, pp. 518 ff. (Bombay 1930); Brhat-Kathamañajari,
Lambaka 10, pp. 423 ff. 4 Or is it that the author of the Lilävati takes Vikramiditya and Sätav hana of
the Kathžsaritsagara and Brhatkathāmañjari to be identical and thus anticipates the conclusions of K. P. Jayaswal that Vikramzditya of Ujjain is Gautamiputra Satakarņi of the Andhra Satavžhaga line, that his grandson HalaSatavahana, the author of the Saptašati, became a king of Pratisthana about 17-21 A, D., and that he was called Vikram/ditya and also defeated Sakas in 78 A. D. etc. ? For Jayaswal's views see J.B.O.R.S, XVI, 1930, pp. 279 ff.