Gaudavaho

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

Page 89

(Lxxii)
(ii) In G. 844, the learned men seated in the assembly (804) propose to him: "We wish to hear being told by you, at full length (nisesam ), the death as it was formerly accomplished, of the king of the Magadhas by our lofty monarch ". The adverb 'pura' in addition to the past passive participle 'nitthavio' indicates that many years had passed after the death of the Magadha King.
(iii) In the next Gāthā (845) we read that he (Vākpati), gently smiling and manifesting goodness, spoke as follows:- the hearts of the pure are ever opposed to the spirit of cavilling (Kaiava)". This implies that because of the innate goodness of his heart, he would not hesitate to comply with their request, although the King had suffered in the estimation of his people through his defeat at the hands of the king of Kashmir. Whatever, therefore, other people thought, he would not raise any frivolous objections and would gladly comply with their
request.
(iv) In Gāthā 1204 we find that from among the Poet's interlocutors, the bards and other poets sing a panegyric of Yasovarma, which ends in G. 1204 thus
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In this manner at that moment were uttered by the poets, praises of the virtues of the monarch, which, though really absent, appeared to be present, because they were imagined to have presented themselves." This, according to Pandit," is almost conclusive to prove that Yasovarmā was dead at that time, as otherwise the virtues of a living monarch could not be spoken as absent by his own subjects and, in all probability, by his dependents.
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41. Note that Gatha 1194 of this panegyric tells us that the Gauda king was put to death by the king by cutting his throat with sword in a hand-to-hand encounter.