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 88

INTRODUCTION
Bhimesvara; a nude Pasupata tenders his advice and guidance both to the hero and to his commander-in-chief; and in the end the jubilant hero pays respects to the shrine of Parvati at Pratisthāna. All these lend a positive Śaivite touch to the contents of L; and the religious back-ground is not much different in B which repeatedly introduces devotion to and worship of Siva etc.
King Satavahana of Pratisṭhāna figures in both the works: in one as the hero and in the other as the patron of the author, Guṇādhya.1 Though B is silent about his marriage with a Simhala princess, we have therein a story in which, as already noted above, king Vikramaditya marries a Simhala princess.2 In a different context in B a Simhala princess Mrgankalekha by name is being sought; on the way there is a ship-wreck; and then follows a description of a visit to Patala. Very often B introduces Nalakūbara, the son of Kubera. It also mentions a Gandharva prince, Citrängada, who kidnaps a girl seen for the first time: thus he acts almost likewise in both the works. One Nagarjuna, a Rasasiddha, is introduced by B. Lilavati and Kuvalayavali figure in both, but there is nothing common beyond names." Rambha plays nearly a parallel rôle in both the texts: in B she tempts a king but in L an ascetic who has relinquished his kingdom, and then delivers a child and flies to heaven the child later on grows into a charming girl.' Pottisa and Vijayananda in L remind us of Yaugandharāyaṇa and Rumaṇvān in B.
The motif of winning a beautiful princess from a distant island like the Simhala and the idea that a certain girl would make her husband a universal sovereign are met with in B more than once. Sea-travel, shipwreck, residence in a hermitage, curses and subsequent redemption, a divine voice announcing the future," characters visiting Pätāla of a typical description and meeting a kanyaka there, a ring acting as an antidote against poison, Vidyadharas etc. moving in the air: all these points, though
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1 See Kathasarit-sagara, I. 5. etc. pp 11 ff. (Bombay 1930); Brhatkatha.mañjari pp. 25 ff. (Bombay 1931).
2 See page 53 above.
3
B.-mañjarī pp. 322 ff.
4 Ibidem pp. 174, 180, 204.
5 Ibidem pp. 202. ff.
6 Ibidem, Glossary of Proper names, pp. 621 ff.
7 Ibidem, pp. 167-69.
8 Ibidem p. 517, verse 90: a R |
9 Ibidem pp. 268, 656 etc,