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 93

BRHAT-KATHĀKOŚA.
supplementary section, thus incorporating most of the stories associated with Arādhanā. This supplementation has not been carefully done, because some of the stories already given in the first part are repeated in the second part (Nos. 14 & 19*15, 15 & 90*18, 19 & 90*22, 22 & 90*27, 20 & 90*28, 21 & 90*31). Simple and short sentences, predominance of the use of past passive participles as predicates and numerous Prākritic words, some of them un-Sanskritic and some back-formations, clearly betray the use of Prākrit sources by Prabhācandra in composing this Kośa. As to the date of this work, it might he assigned to the close of the IIth century A. D., because Prabhācandra was a contemporary of Jayasimha who succeeded Bhoja of Dhără (C. 1OI8-1060).
c) NEMIDATTA'S KATHĀKOŠA IN SANSKRIT VERSES
Nemidatta plainly tells us that his Ārādhană Kathākośa' is based on the work of Prabhācandra who belonged to Mülasangha, Bharati-gaccha, Balātkāragana and Kundakundänvaya, and who wrote the stories in nice sentences. As far as possible he followed the same order of stories which he composed in verses, those of Prabhācandra being in prose. (Intro, verses 5 ff., concluding verses 68 ff.). More than once Prabhācandra is respectfully mentioned in this work (2. 134, 27. 33, 69. 35, etc.). It appears that Nemidatta claims Prabhācandra to belong to the same Gana etc. as those of his own, though Prabhäcandra has not given any details. Nemidatta gives his spiritual predecessors thus: Vidyānandi, Mallibhūsana, Simha nandi and Srutasāgara; they belong to the line of Bhattārakas; and he looks upon them as his elders (concluding verses 69-72). Some of them are his contemporaries, and he remembers them in the concluding verses of some of the stories (3. 66, 4. 83, etc.). This work was composed at the desire of his guru-bhrātr, Bhattāraka Mallibhūşaņa, in the presence of his disciple Simhanandi and for the religious benefit (samyaktva-ratna-sriye) of Srutasāgarasüri (1. 56, 3. 66, etc.). In view of his relation with these, Nemidatta can be assigned to the beginning of the 16th century A. D. The work is plainly called Arādhanā-kathākośa ; and in the introductory section the second gāthā of Bha. Ā. is quoted.
Though Nemidatta's Kathākośa is based on that of Prabhācandra, still there are certain apparent differences between the two texts. The total number of stories in Prabhācandra's work is 122, while that of Nemidatta is 114. From a casual inspection I find that some seventeen stories (Nos. 16, 18, 29, 30, 38, 39, 42, 56, 60, 66, 84, 90*15, 90*16, 90*18, 90*22, 90*27, 90*28) from Pi's Kathākośa, though legitimately connected with the Aradhanā text, are not found in Ni's Kathākośa ; and nine stories from N.'s
1 The Sanskrit text and Hindi translation are published, in three vols., by the
Jaina Mitra Kāryālaya, Bombay, Vira samvat 2440-42. My references are to
the chaps. and verses of this od. 2 Peterson Reports IV, p. cxxiii; Premi: Jaina Sahitya aura Itihāsa, pp. 406-12; etc.