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N. M. Kansara
element. The purpose specified here is to summarise the story of Jivandhara, 31 of course as told by him in his GC; but the unspecified task accomplished is that it is a veritable mine of pithy proverbs and sayings, calculated to bring out the moral significance of each of the incidents as well as of the whole of the story in the light of the Jainistic ideal of human existence. Naturally, the story narrated here is identical with that done in detail in the GC.
Now, a couple of questions arise : why should Vādıbhasimha compose two works, namely the GC and the KC, based on the same story? And, why should he name the one as Gadyacintamani and the other as Kșatracūdāmani ? The questions are interrelated, and so are the answers to them, since they entail an analysis of the contemporary literary environment prevalent during the age of Vādibhasimhasūri, who undoubtedly is a South Indian writer, a thorough scholar, and expectedly hence conversant with the Sanskrit as well as the Tamil classics of his days.
Tha title 'Gadya-cintāmani' is ostensibly unusual, almost unique in the whole range of Sanskrit literature, as it ignores the subject proper of the work, namely the story of Jyvandhara, and projects the literary form of the work as a prose romance par excellence. It presupposes the author's fascination for some Cintāmaņi, works most probably composed in metrical form with which he seems to have wanted his work to be compared in point of literary excellence. Upadhye and Jain have drawn attention to this point in the following manner : "The title Jivaka-ctntāmaņi' has a regular significance, and the name Gadya-cintamani can be understood clearly only by presupposing Jivaka-cintāmaņi. The Jivaka-cintamani or Civakacinta-maņi (i. e. Sivakasintāmaņi ), is in verse, and the term Cintamani is appropriate in its title in apposition to the proper name Jivaka."32
This guess seems confirmed when we look to the historical background. As has been brought out succinctly by Gnanamurthy, 33 the Cilapattikāram, the Manimekhalai, the Cintāmani, the Valaipayati and the Kuntalakeci are considered to be the major epics or Peruňkäppiyams in the ancient Tamil literature. Of these five works, only the Cilapat tikāram and the Cintamani can be deemed major epics. The Cilappatikāram distinguishes itself as an epic by its grand style, diction, noble sentiments, etc. It is in fact a dramatic epic the Natakakāppiam.34 The Cintamani began a new era in the history of Tamil epics. It was the first epic written in Viruttam verses, and served as a model for subsequent epic ( Purānam ) poems.35 It was likewise the first epic to introduce an invocation to God as a necessary beginning of an epic; there is no other epic of earlier times which begins with an invocation in Tamil. This practice probably came into vogue in the Pallava period. It is the Cintamani that introduced the ideal description of an utopia--the country, the river, the city and the inhabitants--as the very beginning of every epic; all Purāna poets of successive ages have followed the Civakacintamani in respect of form and method. The poets who came after Tiruttakkatevar have expressed reverence and admiration for him in the homages they paid to him;37 they are the praises expressed by loving hearts moved
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