Dhurtakhyana in the Nisithacurni

Author(s): A N Upadhye
Publisher: Z_Vijay_Vallabh_suri_Smarak_Granth_012060.pdf

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ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASŪRI COMMEMORATION VOLUME
• The two Sanskrit quotations found in JD are also there in the same context in HD (namely, teşām etc. HD 4-20, and tava prasādāt ete. HD1-87*1). HD adds more dignified descriptions here and there, and additional details are presented in it in smooth gāthās. JD wants just an illustration of Laukika-musăvăda, and whatever is given by the Curņi serves that purpose.
HD has its own characteristics. It is an independent treatise put in a well thought-out satirical frame: the opening and concluding portions fully bear out this. The satirical effect in HD is worked out more logically and in a subtle and effective manner, which is conspicuously absent in JD. What HD adds after 5-76 has nothing corresponding to it in JD; and it may not be just an accident that the major portion of it is composed in a heavy style. In its concluding portion HD puts together a number of detached episodes, especially from the Bharata and Rāmāyaṇa, and asserts that all of them are incredible.
From the extract I am inclined to believe that the Curņi gives all that is hinted in the Bhäşya-gāthās. The colophon: sesan dhuttakkhāņagāņusārena neyam iti, if it is genuine and belongs to the author of the Cūrnī, would lead us to the conclusion that there was a longer Dhuttakkhāna in Prākrit prose from which the major portion is extracted by the Curņi. • The objective comparison of JD and HD leads me to the conclusion that HD is an elaborated and perfected work based on JD or its predecessor as postulated above. The reasons for this may be stated as below: (1) JD is uniformly shorter in its pattern tales and confirmatory
episodes from the Purāṇas all of which are better worked out
with supplementary details in HD. (2) HD incorporates everything in JD and adds more details to it. (3) The simple and narrative details of JD are presented in a more
elaborate manner and polished style in HD. (4) The number of characters and of references to Purāņic tales
increases in HD, which presents them more logically and
effectively. (5) What is a simple narrative illustration in JD is enlarged into an
effective satire in HD with seeds of religious propaganda which
are later on elaborated in the Dharmaparīkņā texts. Thus Haribhadra has built his satirical masterpiece incorporating or