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 81

54
LILĀVAT
an era, so common in Deccan. It is mainly through legendary perspective that the author of this Līlāyati has looked at Hala and composed a romantic poem celebrating his weddding with a Siṁhala princess.
e) The Scenic Back-Ground of The Tale
or
The Sapta-Godāvarī Bhima It is interesting to trace the route of the military expedition of Vijayananda against king Silämegha of Simhala island. He starts from Satavahana's metropolis, viz., Pratisthāna ( mod. Paithan ). On his way he subjugates the king of Malayacala and the Pandya king ( the latter ruling near about Madurā). He reaches the shore and beholds Räma's Bridge (somewhere near the present beach of Dhanushkodi ). He pays respects to Rämeśvara and boards a boat which is blown up by a strong gale into the Eastern ocean (mod. Bay of Bengal). The boat is wrecked near the confluence of Godavari, and with the help of a plank he enters the mouth of that river. Then passing through a forest on the shore where the sin or dirt of Kali age was washed by the waters in seven streams, somehow he reached after a long time the Sapta-Godāvari Bhīma (gäthā No. 198 ). His exhaustion was removed by Godāvari which flows into the ocean with seven streams. After paying respects to Isvara in the temple, he retired to a Matha in which dwelt a Pasupata ascetic, who was nude, who had besmeared his body with ashes, and who was wearing a garland of rosary beads. Just in the vicinity Mahanumati and Kuvalayāvali were staying in a shady hermitage which was adorned with a gorgeous temple of Parvati and fśvara, with a Matha situated on its right side (or to the south).
Then princess Lilāvati, while she is being sent to Satavahana: whom she has chosen to marry, camps on the other bank of Godavari, at a distance of half a Yojana, opposite to the hermitage of Mahanumati and Kuvalayāvali, and later decides to stay with them there, till Mahanumati meets her beloved (gätha No. 880 ).
1 K. Gopalachari has given a nice survey of the researches connected with
Satavahanas in his Early History of Andhra Country (Madras 1941). In recording the details from the Lilavati (based on Bharati, Vol. III, part I, pp. 3 ff.) as Events of Hala's Reign (p. 43) he is 07ervaluing them as.
historical events. 2 According to the com, : enfrontaria frant