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They are like so many paintings in words, steeped in sentiment, soft for the tongue to recite, full of substance, of permanent value and solid in their shadow of thought. It is difficult to be in total agreement with all that he has said of himself in this respect. We may accept the fact that his descriptions are graphic word-pictures, that they are full of substance and solid in thought and we may also look upon them as of everlasting value. The style he has adopted in this Foem is a mixture of the Gaudi and the Vaidrbhi-more of Gauḍī than Vaidarbhi-and except in certain portions, it is certainly not 'soft for touch' to the tongue. It also lacks delineation of the Sentiment, if we presume that Heroism should constitute its prevailing Sentiment, which perhaps, the Poet has reserved for the Gauḍavaho proper, the continuation of the present Poem. It is certainly tough and solid in thought' (chhayaghana), because, unless its hard, external shell, like that of a coconut, is broken to bits, the sweet juice of its inside cannot be tasted.
(LXXXV)
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Jain Education International
Writing about Vākpatirāja's Prakrit poetry, Pandit observes: "He is a master in bringing a master-poet's eye to look upon ordinary things and finding out all the poetry that is in them. He has a wonderful way of laying under contribution some mythical event, and of giving an original description of it from the standpoint of his own imagination. Referring to his beautiful picture of the country scenery, Pandit says: "All that part of the Poem embodies nothing, as it were, but what the Poet had witnessed with his own eyes and what none but a true poet of nature like him could picture in such life-like colours The style of Vākpati is highly cultivated and very pregnant Vākpati is not
46. Pandit-'Gaüdavaho -Introduction, Pp. LII to LIV.
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