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 130

Māhārāștri Language and Literature
121
of the flowers of the heavenly tree Pārijāta to satisfy the desire of his beloved Satyabhāmā who was roused to jealousy on account of his having given her Co-wife Rukmini a garland of the flowers of the same tree. As all the quotations are found in one and the same metre it is but natural to suppose that the author wrote his epic in the Skandhaka as is the case with the work of Pravarasena, even though it is just possible that others were sparingly used. From a remark of Abhinavagupta127 in his comment on the Dhvanyāloka it appears that this epic contained the episode of the taking off of the Pārijāta tree as something that is invented by the poet though not found in the sources, and being made subservient to the purpose of reconciliating his wife. This would make one think that the main theme of the epic was something different and of greater importance.
In the absence of any more evidence it is not possible to determine the date of our author. If we believe the statement of Bhuvanapāla128 that many verses in the Sattasai are from his pen, we will have to place the author fairly early. But much reliance cannot be placed on him unless corroborated by other evidence. At any rate he is earlier than Anandavardhana and must have lived a few centuries before him.
For all that we know Sarvasena appears to have written in a charming style marked with great delicacy as remarked by Kuntala129, his work being an illustration of the Sukumāramārga in poetry and this is fully borne out from the few quotations we now come across. His language is easy and less complicated than that of Pravarasena. But he also shows the use of long compounds and poetic figures. He is also fond of giving gnomic sayings and in all these things there runs a close parallelism between his work and the Setubandha, producing a strong suspicion of one being the model of the other. Yet their precise relation would remain doubtful unless we are able to determine the relative chronology of the two authors which it is not possible with the material at present available. THE SETUBANDHA OF PRAVARASENA*
The Setubandha of Pravarasena 130 is one of the early epics written in this Präkrit. From the text itself we come to know that the author called the work Dahamuhavaho 131 or Rāvanavaho 132 and it is marked by the presence of
* After the article was written, Dr. V. V. Mirashi has convincingly proved that the author of Setubandha was a member of the Vākātaka family of Vidharbha, connected with the Gupta dynasty, and hence the work has not at all connected with the Kashmir.