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THE POPULAR TALE OF CANDANA-MALAYAGIRI : 231
his name. His is a 'common' rather than a 'proper' noun. Narapat Vanjārā is a character moulded in the same pattern.
Malayagiri is not harassed but helped by Narpata Vanjärä. This character of a typical Vaṇjārā-mostly by the name of Lakhā Vanjārā is also a very interesting subject for the folk-tale study. We find the same romantic character in the well-known stories like Nemivijaya's Silavati-no-ras; Samala's Bhadra Bhamini and MadanaMohană etc. There are other innumerable short episodes which bring out the different facets of this lovable and famous Vanjara's character.
One significant point regarding all the versions is that all of them contain a key couplet which can be said to be a sort of the summing up of the story. In the non-Präkrit Versions the trenchant Duha couplet on the adversity of Fate is as follows:
"किहां चंदन, किहां मलयागिरि, किहां सायर, किहां नीर जिम जिम पडइ अवस्थडी, तिम तिम लड्इ सरीर । "
In Gunacandra's story too we find a Gāthā with a similar purport. There, Naravikrama, after losing his wife and sons says:
कह नियनयरथाओ ? कहेल्थ वासो ? कहिं गया भज्जा ? कह पुत्रोहि बिओगो ? कह वा नवे गहणं च १ ।
-P. 100, महावीरचरियं (Devchand Lälbhai Granthamälä, No. 75)
But the concept, "fazifagine!" etc., figures characteristically in many a medieval folk-tales and hence on account of it the "Naravikrama-Candana-Story" can be reasonably suspected of having a folk-tale origin and not an out-right creation of Guna candra.
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This finds a support from the fact that the Duhd, "किहां चन्दन ? किहां मलयागिरि ff?" appears also in Karmapa's Sita-Harana (V. S. 1526-A.D. 1470) with a very slight difference. It also shows that this story might have been very much in vogue amongst the people much before either Karmana or Bhadrasena.
In all the versions of the story the small family of four-Candana Malayagiri and their two sons Sayara and Nira-are separated from each other; and they drift apart due to the vagaries of the Fate and the viles of man.
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