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preparing them for a change as the poet seeks to give a turn to the narra. tive mood.
The prediction by Vasurata about the marriage of Malayasundari12 creates the interest since it is not known as yet that she is to be the beloved of Samaraketu and going to fulfil the conditions. The narrative purpose of the prediction is partly given out in the course of the dialogue between Vicitravirya and Malayasundari, where it is connected with identity of Gandhrvadatta,73
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Dhanapala has dexterously utilized the popular belief about the Vidyadharas that they kidnap human girls; and it is a potent means of creating suspense in as much as the poet has made full use of the technique of surprise by making Malayasundari who was sleeping in her palace bedchamber at Kanci, wake up quite unexpectedly, as though in a dream, in totally unexpected surroundings of a group of princesses gathered in a Jaina temple situated on the remote Island in the midst of the southern ocean.74 This incident of kidnapping of Malayasundari to Ratnakuta by the Vidyadharas has been cleverly made instrumental in bringing her there where she was to meet her lover, as was predicted by Jayantaswami, in her former birth as Prlyamvada. This whole incident keeps us guessing as to whether it is an illusion or a dream 7 It is partly resolved when Tapanavega is ordered by Vicitravirya to take Malayasundari back incognito to her palace,78 though not fully until we are assured by the poet later on that all this was neither an illusion, nor a dream, but a concrete reality.70
The poet's mastery in holding the credulity of the audience to his fingertips is witnessed in the dexterity with which he keeps up the element of suspense in the dialogue between Malayasundari and Vicitravirya,80 wherein problem of the indetity of Gandharvadatta is kept hanging 1 and, the audience almost forgets that the poet has already dropped the hint about its solution well in advance in the talk between Harivahana and Gandharvaka.92 In this dialogue, again, the poet has sown the seeds of further suspense when Malayasundari declares that her maternal grandfather was a 'hermit' (tapasa), thus giving an advance suggestion about the incident of Gandharva. datta's transportation to the Prasantavaira hermitage of Kulapati Sāntatapa;84 it has been hinted at also in the words of Gandharvadatta herself.85 The poet's skill lies in the fact that in spite of all these advance hints he could sustain the suspense successfully to the ultimate delight of, and consequent applause from, the audience.
And see the poet's versatile art in slyly inserting the prediction by Muni Mahāyasas about the union of Gandharvadatta with her kith and kin, which in turn proves to be the vital key to unlock the otherwise closed fate of the so far impossible union of Samaraketu and Malayaundar18", The poet is conscious enough to point out to some of the minor missing
| SR No. | 520754 |
| Book Title | Sambodhi 1975 Vol 04 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani |
| Publisher | L D Indology Ahmedabad |
| Publication Year | 1975 |
| Total Pages | 427 |
| Language | English, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Gujarati |
| Classification | Magazine, India_Sambodhi, & India |
| File Size | 30 MB |