________________
BRHAT-KATHAKOSA
parīkṣā. I have been able to detect at least one instance where Śricandra's quotation is nearer the original, i. e., Bha. A. 682, than that preserved in HK (No. 57. 531). Thus it is quite possible that Śricandra had before him the Kathakośa of Harişena, but he appears to have used some additional sources, some at least perhaps common with those of HK, in composing his Apabhramsa Kosa.
92
Turning to the next group, we have already studied the relation between PK and NK: the latter, though it omits some stories given by the former, is mainly indebted to PK and to Prabhacandra's commentary on the Ratnakarandaka. There is one significant story in NK, No. 25, that of Mrgasena-dhivara, which is not found in PK but is found in HK. The story is nearly identical in contents, but there is nothing specifically common which would induce us to accept that NK is following HK. Though the sequence of stories is disturbed by indiscriminate use of more than one source in compiling the Kathakośa, it has to be admitted that Prabhăcandra presents sufficient evidence to show that his stories are connected with the Bhaga. A. But this connection has become simply nominal in the case of NK: there are no introductory remarks, as in PK, connecting the stories with the Bha. A.; some of the stories, which are legitimately connected with the Bha. A. and which are duly given by PK (PK Nos. 29, 30, 40, 84 etc.), Nemidatta omits, and we do not know why; and at the close of his work, he adds a few stories which are connected with the Ratnakarandaka and the relation of which with Bha. A. in that context is difficult to be established. So it is not quite necessary to compare NK with HK in all the details. We might simply note that the Nos. 1-4, 7, 8, 10, 28 (compare HK 68), 53, 108-12 and 114 of NK have not got their counterparts in HK; and if we compare closely HK and PK we are doing the necessary justice to the second group too.
Even a superficial comparison between HK and PK shows that the former contains numerically 35 stories more; and every one of its story, whenever it is common, is longer and gives more details. HK is composed in verses, but PK is in prose with occasional metrical quotations; and according to rough clerical calculation PK is just one-fifth of HK. As seen from the table given above, many stories from HK are not found in PK; a few stories from HK are given twice by PK; and what is more important, PK gives some stories which have no counterparts in HK. Of the eight stories (PK Nos. 1-4, 7, 8, 10 and 18) which are additional in PK, No. 3, the story of Sanatkumara, which gives nearly the same details as in its No. 66, can be easily equated with No. 129 of HK. Though the contents of some
1
See my paper Harisena's Dharmapariksa in Apa bhramsa, Silver Jubilee Volume, Annals of the BORI, 1942.
See Notes on 57. 531. See my paper Śricandra and his Apabh. Kathakośa' contributed to the Radha Kumuda Mookerji Presentation Volume which is awaiting publication.
2
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
