Lost of Sanskrit Drama Puspadusitaka and Story of Nandayanti in Jain Tradition

SR No.: 032749
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1994
Total Pages: 38
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

Page 26

The Abhijnana-sakuntala and the Puspadusitaka It may be noted that the plot of of PD. has several significant parallels with the plot of Kalidasa's Sakuntala. (1) The pregnant wife's rejection (or banishment); (2) her finding refuge in a hermitage (or a Sabara settlement in a forest), where a male child is delivered; (3) the part played by the fingerring with the hero's name inscribed thereon in removing the suspicion about the heroine's character; (4) in the plot development, a situation devised in a previous Act playing very significant dramatic role in a later Act (Dusyanta told the Vidusaka that he was joking about his attraction for the Asrama girl. Thereafter he sent him away. This serves an improtant dramatic purpose. Vidusaka could not be helpful in Fifth Act in establilng the real fact about Sakuntala's relation with Dusyanta. Similarly Nandayanti is accused and banished during the absence of the servant Kuvalaya, who having returned thereafter gives eyewitness account of Samudradatta having secretly visited Nandayanti and presents Samudradatta's inscribed fingerring as irrefutable evidence. Earlier he could not inform Nandayanti's father-in-law as he was found by oath by Samudradatta not to tell immediately anybody about his visit.) Similar motifs found in other stories The motif of false accusation (or suspicion) of unchastity suffered by a married noble woman of chaste character and her subsequent unjust and cruel banishment to wilderness is very frequently used in Indian tales of all times. In the Jain Tradition, when the tetrad of Dana, Sila, Tapas and Bhavana came into focus within Jain ethics, we have an abundant crop of literary works relating Sila-kathas. The above-noted motif is found in the biographies of Sita, Anjana, Nandayanti, Kalavati and Sudarsana, narrated in numerous narratives in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsa and Old Gujarati Jain [24]