Gaudavaho

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

Page 61

(xiv) This view of Pandit has been accepted by Bühler, an eminent German scholar, who says of the Gaüdavaho that 'the author (Vākpatirāja ) bestows as much care as possible on the accessories and gives as little as possible on real history. He gives an additional reason in support of the view of the present Poem being a prelude. Of the four MSS of the Gaüdavaho, two style the work in their colophon as 'Kahāvidham' (peranti ), one calls it Gāhāvidham' (TEtató), while the fourth MS is silent about it. Bühler observes that giate, which is Prakrit for 1917, is the title of the first or introductory Lambaka of the Sanskrit rendering of the Gunādhya's BỊhatkathā, both by Kşemendra and by Somadeva and which, therefore, must have been found in the original Prakrit work of Gunādhya. “On this analogy we may hold that our present Poem too should be an introductory part of another larger Poem. The reading hietala is perhaps a mistaken reading for कहावीढं." १
Another Geman scholar, J. Hertel, also agrees with this view of Pandit. He relies on the concluding words of the colophon of one of the MSS, which are --- $1777लंछणस्स वप्पइरायस्स गउडवहे ॥ गाथावीढं समत्तं ॥ and says that the existing Poem is but the introduction-the 41418. Its author never carried out, however, his intention of writing the real Gaüdavaho.
This view has, however, been controverted by the eminent German scholar, H. Jacobi. “He argues that if the existent work is to be looked upon as a prelude to another larger historical work, the former would have to be regarded as a very unique work indeed, without any like of it in the whole range of Indian literature. The present work is too great to have formed only one Āśvāsa, being only a little shorter than, for instance, the
9. 'Gaüdava ho' - Reprint by Utgikar, P ccxxxix.