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Interpretation of a Passage in the Bhagavadajjukiya
H. C. Bhayani
In the well-known farce Bhagavadajiukiya by Mahendravikramavarman (7th cent. A.C), the Yama's agent taking with him the snatched away life of the courtesan, decribes the route he traverses to reach Yama's land in the following verse. (no.25) :
गङ्गातीर्य विन्ध्यं शुभ-सलिल - वहां नर्मदामेष सह्यं
गोलेयीं कृष्णवेण्णां पशुपति - भवनं सुप्रयोगां च काञ्चीम् । कावेरी ताम्रपर्णीमथ मलयगिरिं सागरं लङ्घयित्वा । वेगादुतीर्य लङ्कां पवन - सम-गतिः प्राप्तवान् धर्म- देशम् ॥
Lockwood and Bhat have understood goleyim as qualifying Kṛṣṇavenna and meaning 'whirling'.
The translations of Beloni-Filippi, Van Buitenin and C. Minakshi are not accessible to me. I think goleyim (better gauleyim) here is a synonym of the river Godavari on the following grounds.
The river Godavari is also known as Goda in later Sanskrit. Its Prakrit form gola has been widely used, and adopted in late Sanskrit also. In medievel literature Golla is known as the name of a country. Probably it is based on golya, 'the country around the river Gola'. golla- occurs in Hemacandra's Parisiṣṭaparvan (8,194) (MW) and in Prakrit in Malayagiri's commentary on the Avasyaka (PSM). In the Raula-vela (in a mixture of Late Apabhramsa and Early Indo-Aryan), datable in P. 12 cent. A.C. occur golla ‘a person from the Golla country' and golla ‘a girl from the Golla country'.
In view of this gauleyi in the third line of the cited verse can be taken to mean the river of the Golya country. It is in line with the other river names occurring in the verse Ganga, Narmadā, Kṛṣṇā/ Kṛṣṇaveņņā, Kaveri and Tamraparni.
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