Gaudavaho

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

Page 63

(xLvi)
Jacobi finds support for his argument also in the variation of the number of verses or Gāthās contained in each of the four manuscripts of the Gaüdavaho, one of which has only 1102 Gāthās, while the other three have 1235 i.e. 133 more Gāthās. Haripāla, the commentator also calls his commentary as finisiatfaisaxeeil'. Jacobi surmises that “Haripāla who, besides his father. had many predecessors, probably found in the old MSS, the colophon 17579TT i. e. an epitome of Gaüdavadha, and therefore he called his commentary na quarta1."
Pandit bases his opinion on the last Gāthā, No. 1209, to conclude therefrom that the present work is just prefatory. There is, however, one more verse in Upajāti metre noted in two MSS. The verse is as under :
करायलंछण( स्सव) वप्पइरायस्स गउड( वहम् )।
(नामे )ण कहावीढं रइयंचिय तह समत्तं च ।। Pandit also has recorded this verse in his list of various readings. Jacobi observes, “So much is certain that after V, 1209 there followed only a verse or verses, which brought the Poem to its finish and that, therefore, it is not at all necessary to hold that after V. 1209, the history proper of Yašovarman was to follow." 11
· The arguments advanced by Jacobi are quite ingenious, indeed. But it is difficult to accept his view that the present Poem is merely an epitome. His contention regarding the bulk of the, Gaüdavaho, present and prospective, has not much substance. Poets, Post-Kālidāsian, like Bāna, Bhavabhūti and others, revelled in voluminious writing, in quantity more than quality. Such has been the case, especially with Jain writers like Hari
.: 11. Gaüdava ho', Reprint by Utgikar,
Pages ccxlii-ccxliii.
Introduction.