Chaupannamahapurischariyam

Author(s): Shilankacharya, Amrutlal Bhojak, Dalsukh Malvania, Vasudev S Agarwal
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 44

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INTRODUCTION
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HTr and from Sanghadāsa's Vasudevabindi it was prophesied to the king that he had only another month to live : hence the action of the minister. It is however only in SC that the king is led to vairāgya by a dramatic performance. In the other Svetāmbara and Digambara sources it is a philosophical discussion in the presence of the king which persuades him of the futility of worldly existence ( but compare also JCū/HTI : tattha Subuddhiņā (Subuddhi = Viralamati) ... nag aga-pekkha-akkhitta-wano sambonio Mahabalo] ).
The play is constructed in every respect upon the model of the classical drama. But the only language used besides Sanskrit is Prakrit (i.e. the language of SC) with occasional forms in Sauraseni. The metre of the Prakrit verses is the Aryā; Sárdūlavikridita, Āryā, Upajāti, Vasantatilaka, Sragdhara are the metres of the Sanskrit stanzas. It inay seem that the tragic end violates the rules of the Sanskrit draina. But properly speaking the end is only loosely connected with the rest of the piece ; by the performance of the marriage ceremony the happy dénouement (nirvahana ) which marks the end of every drama is secured. The tragic end which counteracts the outcome of the action is an appendix to the body of the story and recurs in a similar form in the three vairāgya-stories. Here as in countless reflections spread over the whole work, Silanka wants to show that fate (particularly in the form of death ) is blind, cruel and ineluctable.
$24. The Silavati--story (SC/E : pp. 57-62; text and commentary on pp. 138-144 and 147-150 of SC/M). In a previous existence the narrator was a kşatriya called Varunavarman. His father had married him to Silavati, a girl of good family. Both were children at the time of the marriage, and as they grew up Silavati turned out to be a svairiņi. When V. realized that she would not change her character, he neglected her.-One day the village is looted by the young and good-looking pallipati Simha. Silavati falls in love with the robber and asks him to become her husband. Simha takes her to his palli and makes her his chief queen. V. is glad to be rid of Silavati and no longer thinks of her. One day, however, when he has defeated all the other young men in a military contest, he is challenged by Silavati's brother Mitravarman. Mitravarman observes that V.'s actual prowess and skill can be judged by the fact that he allowed his wife to be kidnapped. A man worthy of his name fears no danger and will rather forego everything dear to him than lose his honour. But the greatest humiliation of all is that a wife should be kidnapped before the husband's eyes.
V. takes the affair very seriously, in fact nobody knows Silavati's true character but his disgrace has become manifest to everbody. He decides that now the time has come to rescue Silavati some way or other from the abductor and to hand her over to her relatives. As he has to face the impending dangers all alone he disguises himself as a merchant (? see SC/M p. 139, note 20 ). After marching through a dangerous forest he arrives several days later at a palli called Kālajihvā, difficult of access and furnished with only one entrance. Here he is accommodated by an old woman called Sumitrā who bestows maternal care upon him. From his behaviour she infers that he is worried about something, and when she asks him the reason he tells her the whole story. In order to help him Sumitrā makes friends with Silavati. One day she asks her about her relatives, her former husband, and so on. She concludes by asking Silavati whether she loves the pallipati or her legitimate husband. The perfidious woman pretends to be unhappy and homesick and to long desperately for Varuņavarman. Sumitrā informs V. and he accepts ber words at face value. On the next day, Sumitrā informs Silayati that news from her former husband has come : he is in search of her. Silavati thereupon asks Sumitrā to carry a letter to V. in which she requests him to take her home. At this moment Sumitra informs her that V. is staying with her. The treacherous woman goes into transports of joy. She asks Sumitra to bring her husband to her that very day as the pallipati had left to take part in a yātrā.