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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JUNE, 1907.
Three or more verses, which, according to the meaning, form a unity, are expressed as such by the expressions kaldpaka, 18 kulaka, tilaka, and sumdanitaka. The last two of these expressions have been till now used but sparingly; besides, their use does not always agree with the rules of the Indian theorists. Thus samdanitaka as a rule is used in order to combine to verses, through which one and the samo sentence runs, while this expression, for example, according to the Sahityadarpana, No. 558, serves to join three verses.19 If in sarga 14, 79-85, seven verses, is called a tilaka, 20 this is apparently merely a slip of the pen for kulaka.
Padmagupta's language is, on the whole, pure, simple, and easily understood. In individual cases the want of a commentary is pressingly felt.
The story which Padmagupta relates in his Navasd hasánkacharita with the peculiar breadth of the Mahakavyag, has, without doubt, a historical background. Not only the hero of the poem, king Sindhuraja, did really exist; the other people too, who appear in the poem as Nagas, Vidyâdbaras, A suras, &c., have played a part as comrades or erremies of the king. Meanwhile it will he difficult to fix the true names and positions of the historical characters which appear in Padmagupta and must be left to others (conf. below, p. 171).
The following analysis of the poem is given in brief. It will merely be a sketoh. The endless speeches and long-winded descriptions, which fill up a great part of the poem, without essentially affecting the narrative, will not, as a rule, be taken account of.
First is an index of the characters ( speaking or acting) which appear in the Navas dhasinkacharita :
Sindhuraja alias Navas&hasanka, king of Malaya, Yabobhata alias Ramangada, his minister. Sankhapala, a king of the Nagas. Sasiprabha, his daughter. Anangavati, Kalavati, MAlyavati, Friends of Sasiprabha. Patala, Narmada (Revå ), the goddess of the river of the same name. Vanku, a Muni (Maharshi). Ratnachada, a young snake-demon. Sabikanda, a king of the Vidyadharas. Malatt, his wife. Vajrankuba, a king of the Asuras. Visvánkuba, his son.
V.-Analysis of the Poem. The first sarga bears the title nagarinarendraparnanam. The town, that is. Uijavint, is described, vv. 16-55. The rest of the sarga is dedicated to the narendravarnanam. The king *# called Sindhuraja. Other names of the king are, Navashasanka and Kumaranarayana. Of these
1s Without doubt those names of Sloka-connections are referred to in the Tri kandafesha III, 2, 23, under kalapakavišeshakau, &c., which, like so so many other statements in this Lexioon, has been misunderstood (800 Zachariae in Bezzen berger's Besträgen, X. 122 ff.). In the Petersburg Dictionary under Kaldpaka we meet with the meaning "sect marks on the forehead."
16 Yet the younger Vaghbata tonohes in his Alarkdratilaka: kena chhandaad muktakam dyabhyash yugmash Sulainitakan cha tribhir viseshakam chaturbhih kalapakam dyadasantaih kulakam. India Office MSS. No. 2548.
20 Tilaka, really "brow ornament, cast mark," is like the word of the same meaning viseshaka according to the Markhakosa, s.v. triflokt (triślokyam krishnalavans tilakan klomni chastriydm). Conf. Zachariae, Beiträge sur indischen Lexicographie, p. 72.
