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The Sources of Vadibhasimha's Gadya-cintamani
the work, it is evident that the author was a Jaina by faith. It was written immediately after the Cintamani came into existence, and before the commentary on the Yapparuńkalam, in which some of its stanzas are quoted, was written in the 10th century A. D.47
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The Culamani telates that Payapati, the king, had two sons, by name Vicayan, and Tivittan, by his wives Mikäpati and Caci, respectively. Acuvakrivan is the enemy of the two sons. Tivittan, the younger son, marries Cuy amprapai, the daughter of a Vityatara king. Acuvakrivan fights with Tivittan and dies. Tivittan becomes the king. His father Payapati and his elder brother Vicayan renounce the world. The Culamani deals with the story in a grand style. It is written in Viruttam verses of various kinds.45
In the light of the above information, and in view of the fact that the real name of the author of the GC was "Odeyadeva" which is but a Sanskritised form. of the original Tamil name like Otey atevar' or 'Uttiyatevar', 'Vadithasimha' being merely an honorific pseudonym or nom de plume, it is clear that the author of the GC and the KC was a Tamilian, that he was familiar with the Tamil classics of Tiruttakkatevar and Tolāmolittevar, and that inspired by the popularity of these two veteran epic poets, he too undertook to compose a Sanskrit prototype of the Tamil Culamani too. However, he chose therein to summarise the story of Jivandhara, who was in his eyes the hero par excellence, rather than sing the glory of a comparatively inferior hero like Tivitṭan. Hence the title Kṣatracüḍāmaņi", which emphasises that the work is another Culamani relating the story of a real warrior (kşatra), i. e., a protector rather than a killer, in contrast to the Tamil Culamani wherein the hero is a mere avenger of his enemy.
Vädrbhasimha, thus, seems to have composed the two classics to give us the Sanskrit prototypes of the celebrated Tamil classics-one of them of the major type and another of the minor type, doubly qualifying him for an honoured place among the great epic poets of Tamil and of India as a whole. And in undertaking the task he was actuated more by a spirit of flling the gap in the Sanskrit literature than by a mere spirit of competition; both Tiruttakkatevar and 'Oteyateyar' alias Vādībhasimha belonged to the Digambara sect of Jainism, and both wrote to glorify the Jainistic way of life.
When we compare the stories in the light of the chronology of the works in view of the above discussion, and in view of the fact that the chronological gap between the UP and the CC between the CC and the GC as also the KC was hardly more than a century or its a half, some new points emerge which indeed are interesting As has been noticed in the foregoing, scholars who have compared the works. of Gunabhadra and Puspadanta find that the latter follows the former in all the details of the narrative. It is natural since the purpose of both works is to codify
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