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Classification of Poetry
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Parva-bandha, for Bhoja is a very major work and is illustrated by the great Mahābhārata having divisions designated as 'parvans'. In such a work the topics of history are vowen in verse and in Sanskrit :
"yasmin itihāsárthās' cchandobhis samskstena badhyante, bahavaḥ, parvabandho bhavati,
mahābhārata-prabhștih.” It may be noted that literary critics call the Mahābhārata an 'itihāsa', but the Mahābhārata itself says that it is a kāvya. It contains a great number of stories.
“Kānda-bandha' - is for Bhoja, one which is divided into kāndas, and is a major work in verse. The illustration is the Rāmāyana. Actually Bhoja has given three independent types for three major works such as Brhatkathā, Mahābhārata and Rāmāyana. Bhoja observes :
“yatrétihāsam akhilam yathāsthitam caikam eva bhāsante, rsayas sa kāņda-bandho
Rāmāyaṇa-sannibho bhavati.” Dr. Raghavan (pp. 627, ibid) observes :
“Before taking leave of the kathā-varieties, we may take note of the information on this topic found in Jain works. The Jain writers mention quite a large number of kathās : the Vasudevahindī broadly classifies kathā into historical (carita) and the imaginative (kalpita) and each again as dealing in main either with a man or a woman (Lambha X, pp. 208-9, Bhavanagar, Edn.). The Kuvalayamālā of Uddyotanasūri classifies kathās by the Puruşárthas, Dharmakathā, Arthakathā, and sankīrna, giving each some sub-varieties; besides these, Uddyotana speaks of a fivefold classification, in which besides the Sakalakathā and Khandakathā met with elsewhere, we find three new classes, Ullāpakathā, Parihāsa-kathā and Varakathā, and calls his own work a Sańkirna-kathā combining features of all these. The Līlāvati which is a prāksta kathā in verse, gives a two-fold classification, on the basis of the characters being divine, human or mixed (Divya, Manusa, Divya Mānusa), and of the language, samsksta, Prāksta and Sankīrṇa (gāthā, 35, 36). In his Samarāditya kathā, Haribhadra mentions the classifications found in the Kuvalayamālā and Lītāvatī, and in the Niryukri on the Daśavaikālika (III. 194 ff), besides the Puruśártha varieties noted above a type called Vikathā is mentioned. (ft. n. 1, see A. N. Upadhye, Līlāvatī, Singhi, Jain Series, Notes, p. 328)
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