Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 128

Māhārāştri Language and Literature
119
the Sātavāhanas were in favour of Prākrit which is corroborated by their inscriptions at Nāśik. The geographical background of the work also points to the country where these kings ruled.
Weber120 however points out that in verse 467 we find king Sālāhana mentioned as a great person which makes it impossible that the work is contemporary with him. It is also doubtful whether both Hāla and Sālāhana are identical. From the internal references Weber thinks it clear that the anthology cannot be earlier than the third century A. D. This conclusion, Weber thinks, is confirmed by the political, geographical, religious and other allusions found in the work and is further corroborated by the evidence of the language. He points out that the two words Vandī:21 and Horā, the word Angāravāra123 to mean Tuesday all showing acquaintance with Greek astronomy show that the work is late. The absence of the name of Kālidāsa in the list of the names of the poets, he is inclined to interpret, as favouring this date. But much of the force of his arguments is lost, when we remember that Sālāhana is the name of the Dynasty and that the anthology has suffered greatly while attaining its present form.
Jacobi, on the other hand, had identified this king Hāla with the Sātavāhana king of Pratisthānapura who, at the advice of the sage Kālika, changed the date of Pajjūsaņā of the Jains in 467 A. D. This date agrees well with all the allusions in the work. But it is very doubtful whether the Jains are right in putting the Sātavāhana king so late and their tradition itself is not of great value. Keith stresses the point that the language of the present anthology is later than the dramas of Aśvaghosa and the inscriptions of the early Christian era, which would induce him to place the production of the poems between 200 and 450 A. D. and their putting together in the form of an anthology somewhat later. From the evidence that is available it is most probable that the work belongs to the first century A. D. and is closely associated with the S5tavāhana kings.
From the majority of the verses in the collection it is evident that Hāla collected his pieces from a literature essentially of the same nature, s verses dealing with complete situations. But even then a few gāthās would indicate that they are taken from popular tales like that of a lady put in captivity but waiting to be released, a woman captured by thieves or the unchaste woman who pretends that she is bitten by a scorpion because she wants to go to the house of the doctor whom she loves. But even this cannot be said to have some context as the situations can be easily imagined for the purpose of understanding the verses.