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 90

INTRODUCTION
meets her in his dream ) and subsequently pines for him.' In the case of Lilavati the course of events is slightly different. Being destined to be a sovereign's wife, her father gets prepared the paintings of great They are put in her room. She sees the portrait of Satavāhana and falls in love with him; then she meets him in a dream; and since then she suffers from separation. Her close attendant is Vicitralekhā who reminds us of Usa's friend Citralekha. With Ratnāvali' our heroine Līlāyati has much similarity. Both of them are Simhala princesses; and it is prophesi. ed that they would make their husbands universal sovereigns. Fate has a pathetic influence on the lives of both, and a necklace plays a significant rôle in the fulfilment of their marriage.
More than once Kuvalayāvali reminds us of Sakuntala. Both of them are the daughters of ascetics who were practising severe penances but were tempted to sex.pleasures by jealous Indra through celestial nymphs who give birth to them and then go back to heaven leaving them to the care of a hermitage. Both of them grow into charming girls under the sylvan atmosphere. It is through Gandharva form of marriage that Kuvalayāvali gets wedded to Citrāngada and Sakuntalā to Dusyanta without the previous permission of the elders. And lastly, it is a curse, of her father in the case of Kuvalayāvali and of Durvāsas in the case of Sakuntala," that separates them from their husbands. A helpful ring plays some part in shaping their destiny, though not directly in the case of Kuvalayāvali. So far only the comparison works. Somehow the author is not explicit in the Lilävati about Rambhā's relation with Nalakůbara: she simply entrusts her daughter, Kuvalayāvali, to his care and goes to heaven, but elsewhere in the Purāņas she is his wife.
From the above observations it is quite probable that Kutahala had in view, in a general way, the contents of earlier literary works like the Brhatkatha of Guņādhya, Abhijñāna-Sakuntalam of Kālidāsa, the Vasavadatta of Subandhu, the Kādambari of Bäņa and the Ratnāvali of Harsa.
1 Vasavadattă, ed, and tr. by Louis H. Gray, New York 1913. 2 The Ratnávali of Harsa, ed. Godbole & Parab, Bombay 1890. See the Notes
on gatha 158 at the end. 3 Compare Abhijñāna-Sakuntalam-1, 24. 60 ff, pp. 21' etc. ed. Gajendragadkar,
Surat 1946. 4 Ibidem IV. 1. 4 ff, pp. 74-75.