Chandonushasan

SR No.: 090113
Original Sutra Author: Hemchandracharya
Author: H D Velankar
Publisher: Singhi Jain Shastra Shiksha Pith Mumbai
Publication Year: 1961
Total Pages: 444
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 9 MB

Page 62

INTRODUCTION
greatly favoured and appreciated in the assemblies of the learned and elderly persons. About the Räsäbandha and similar compositions, Svayambhu further tells us that these were full of irregularities of grammar and metre and yet they were greatly praised by appreciative experts in the field. From the remarks of Svayambhu and Hemacandra we further know that such poems were composed either in praise of deities (when they received a significant name Phullaḍaka i. e., Puspikā), or on auspicious occasions like marriage (when they were called Mangalas), or even while praising a great man under the image of a bull (when they were called Dhavalas). They were also composed sometimes as a sort of a riddle for the purpose of amusement or training of the intellect, and then they were called Prahelikäs and Hṛdayālikas (later known as Antaḥ Prahelikās and Bahiḥ Prahelikäs). Owing to the rapid growth of such lyrics in the Apabhramsa language and also due to the rise of such erudite poets as Caturmukha and Svayambhu who could have very well composed Sanskrit Mahikavyas had they chosen to do so, Prakrit poetry dwindled in importance, though it still lingered on till the days of Rajesekhara, who in his Kavyamimänsä, composed in the first half of the 10th century A. D., assigns a place to the Prakrit poets together with the Sanskrit poets on the one hand and the Apabhramsa poets on the other, at the king's court. The Präkrit illustrations, which are quoted by Svayambhu for his Varņa and Mäträ Vṛttas in the Prakrit language may lead us to the same conclusion as above. On the other hand, we get no clear idea about the state of Prakrit and Apabhramsa poetry at the time of Hemacandra, who unfortunately, does not quote" from the existing poems, but chooses to compose his own illustrations. Yet from the few references which we get to such significant terms as Phullaḍaka, Jhambaṭaka, Dhavala and Mangala and also from the fact that he himself condescends to compose his illustrations in the Apabhramsa language we may infer about the existence as well as a flourishing condition of both the Räsäbandha and the Sandhibandha Kavyas in that language at his time. Many Jain monks hereafter com
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50 In the second Adhyaya on the Sanskrit metres, Hemacandra generally follows the Jain Tradition about the names of the metres, but almost always mentions the older names under the authority of Bharata in about 34 cases; he similarly mentions Pingala in three cases and Kasyapa, Saitava, Jayadeva and Svayambhu only once each. He quotes a Dvipadikhanda from Sriharia's Ratnavali on 4.85, for which see above para 22 end (p. 26).