Bruhat Katha kosha

SR No.: 016060
Original Sutra Author: Harishen Acharya
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan
Publication Year: 1943
Total Pages: 566
Language: Prakrit, Sanskrit
Classification: Dictionary & Dictionary
File Size: 16 MB

Page 149

118
BRHAT-KATHAKOŚA
of this Harişeņa. V Harişeņa, who had written some Yasodharacarita', is mentioned along with Prabhañjana (who appears to be referred to by Uddyotanasûri in his Kuvalayamala, A. D. 778) by Väsavasena in his Yaśodhara. carita which was used by Gandharva in supplementing Puşpadanta's Jasahara cariü in Samvat 1365 (-57 = 1308 A.D.). Somakirti also refers to him in his Yasodharacarita (Sam. 1535). vi) Harişeņa, the author of Aştahni.
which we have a Ms. (No. 469 of 1884-86) in the Bha-darkar O.R. I., Poona. He belonged to Mūlasangha, and he gives his spiritual ancestry thus: Ratnakirti, Devakirti, Silabhūsana, Gunacandra and Harişeņa (the author himself). From its appearance, the Ms. may be about two hundred years old.
Our Harişeņa, the author of Bịhat.kathakośa, is different from all the above Harişeņas that I have been able to list. It is not unlikely, however, that Harişena (No. v), referred to by Väsavasena and Somakirti,
tical with our author who gives an exhaustive story about Yasodhara (No. 73) in this Kośa; but we have no sufficient evidence to establish this identity. The Prasasti gives Harişeņa's spiritual ancestry thus: There was that Maunibhattāraka, the full moon in the firmament of the Punnāta.samgha, who enlightened the pious people by the flash of his scriptural knowledge; he stayed at Vardhamānapura which was crowded with Jaina temples, white palaces and wealthy populace. His pupil was that revered Śrīharişeņa who possessed various virtues and practised different penances. His disciple was that pious Bharatasena who was a poet well-versed in different branches of learning, metrics, rhetorics, dramaturgy, grammar and logic, and who was attended upon by the learned. Of this famous Bharatasena, there was the disciple Harişeņa (the author himself) who does not claim to possess any [expert) knowledge of grammar, metrics and logic; and it is he that composed this Kathākośa (which is called ärādhanoddhrtaḥ). It was finished in 989 according to Vikramaditya-kāla, or in 853 according to Saka-kāla, in the twentyfourth year Khara by name, during the reign of Vinayädikapāla. This is just a running summary of the facts given by our author in the Praśasti; and it is necessary to scrutinise them critically and understand them in relation to other well-known facts.
Punnāta-visaya or the territory of Punnāta, according to Harisena himself, is to be located in the Daksiņāpatha or South India (Nos. 131. 40,
1 Hiralal: Jaina Sāhitya Samsodhaka, II, 3, p. 146; P. L. Vaidya : Jasaharacariü,
Intro. pp. 17, 24-5; Premi: Jaina Sahitya aura Itihasa, p. 539. 2 Mr. Modi reads the name of Śri-Harişena in a passage from the Apabhranía
Harivañía of Svayam bhū (Bharatiya Vidyā, Hindi, vol. I, 2, pp. 167, 175); but Prof. Hiralal reads differently and gives the name of Sri-Harşa (Nagpur University Journal, No. 1, December 1935). So Mr. Modi's reference cannot be used, for the present, to enumerate one more Harişeņa or to identify him with
Sri-Harişena, mentioned in the Prasasti of this Kathākośa. 3 That is his modesty.