Avantisundari

Author(s): Dandi Acharya
Publisher: Surnad K Pillai

Page 8

of opinion. The majority of scholars favoar Dandin's authorship of the Dasakumāracarita also. (See History of Sanskrit Poetics - Introduction to Sahitya Darpaņa by P. V. Kane, p. 89). The third work is taken to be Chandoviciti by some, Dvisandhāna, Mrcchakatika, or Kalapariccheda by others. Detailed discussion on the question of identification of the third work may be seen in the lotrcduction to ihe present edition. But a more important problem has been reised by the discovery of the Avantisundari Katha which is specifically attributed to Dandin. The question is whether Dandin wrote cnly three works as etated by Raj: ļēkkara, and whether he wrote both the Dasakumāracarita and the Avantisundari, the latter being only a more elaborate and altered version of the former so far as we are alle to jacge. From the data available, it is doubtful whether the statement of Ràj szkhara can be accepted as correct, is in that case, the authorship of certain works like the Dvisandbana etc. now assigned to him will have to be re-txamined.
What is, however, more important in this connection is the identification of the authors of the L'asakumāracarita arc: tc Aventisundari. From the colophone of manuscripts avril). Dle bere we find thet both are works of Dandin. The colophen in the Avantisundarí, according to the manuscript available in this library, is as follows :
"इत्याचार्यदण्डिना कृता अवन्तिसुन्दरी समाप्ता ।" It is also stated in the work itself that the story is narrated by Dandin at the instance of his friends. This is sufficient prouf that the Avantisandari is the work