Gaudavaho

Author(s): Vakpatiraj, Narhari Govind Suru, P L Vaidya, A N Upadhye, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 433

GAÜDAVAHO (Notes)
As is customary and also as required by literary conventions, Vākpatirāja begins his Poem 'Gauḍavaho' with a homage to the Divine. He is not a sectarian, who has a preditection, like Kalidasa, for one particular god, but is perfectly catholic in his devotion to the various gods idolised in mythology.
The following are the Divinities invoked by him in his prefatory portion of the poem extending over 61 Gāthās :Brahmā (1-5), Hari (6), Nrsimha (7-12), Varaha, The great Boar (13-15), Vamana (16), Kurma (17), Visņu as Mohini (18-19), Kṛṣṇa (20-23), Balarama (24-25), Bala and Krsna (26), Madhumatha (27-28), Siva (29-41), Kumāra (42), Gauri (43-46), Saraswati (47), Candra (48), Surya (49-50), Ahivaraha (51), Gaṇeśa (52-54), Lakṣmi (55-56), Kāma (57) and Ganga (58-61).
1. The Mahabharata represents Brahma as springing from the navel of Visnu or from a lotus which grew thereabout. .. after-With a white sacred thread made i. e. worne across. कृतधवलोपवीतम् । The white sacred thread is imagined by the Poet as the lotus-fibre extracted and thus suspended over the body of Brahma, as He came out from the belly of Visnu.
2. The seeds in the pericarp (fr) of the lotus where Brahma dwells are fancied to be so many worlds treasured in a latent form, to be later on manifested in their fully expanded form.
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3. It is from atoms, according to the Vaiseṣikas, that the world has been created. The dust-particles (faff) inside the lotus, the residence (for) of Brahmā, serve for the purpose of atoms and are accepted, according to the Poet, as the material for he creation of the worlds.
4. Brahma is pictured by the Poet as a great Yogin or Rṣi sitting in meditation and muttering his prayers, with a rosary of crystal beads in his right hand, which represents a cycle or a circle of worlds corresponding with the round beads, revolving at each Mantra.