Indian Antiquary Vol 42

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 148

140
THE INDIAN ANTIQUABY
(MAY, 1913.
Of Satddlaskåras or figures of words, Vatsabbatti uses only the dwuprdoa, or alliteration. The lotter-alliteration or Varnanupráta occurs in every verse. The Paddruprasa or the repetition of the same word in different senses is found more se!dom. The verse above (26) is an instance, where the word bandhu is repeated thrice in honour of the king Bandburarman, It is to be noticed that Kalidasa in his brief accounts of the Ragba kings Nabhas, Puņdarîka, Kshemadbanvan, Ahfaagu and othere, plays on their names exactly in a similar manner. (Raghupanija , XVIII., 5, 7, 8, 13 and so on)25. In prasastis, this sort of play on name is met with occasionally and one should specially compare the above-mentioned LÅkhá-Mandala praiast, wherein almost everything is provided with a play on bis name. A second instance of the Padánupráca occurs in the beginning of the first verse in siddhaik siddhyarthibhih, a third, in verso in kinara-naraih, a fourth, in verse 18, where the first pada ends with vánja and the second pada begins with the same syllable, a fifth in verse 25 in andthandthah, and sixth in verse 87 in atyuddram udaraya.
of the Arthálankdras or figures of sense, the author frequently uses only the most familiar ones, riz. Upamd, Utprekshd, and Rápaka or the identification of two similar things. In the phrase siddhaiḥ siddhyarthibhil, already mentioned above, . Virodbilan kâra or Oxymoron appears to be attempted, and a Dhwani (see belon) is contained in verse 9. It would be little interesting to enumerate severally the Upamás, Utprokshdo and Rapakas which the composition presents. Far more instructive would be the attempt to place the most important images and turns of oxpression side by side with similar ones in the Kavyas and thus to show that quite number of expressions characteristic of the karya style occurs in Vatsabhatti's prasasti.
Even the praise of the sun in the mangala contains several points of relationship with passages in classical poems which are devoted to the glorification of the same gcdbood. The first two strophes :
1 . May the light-giver (Bhaskara), the cause of the destruction and origin of the world, protect you; the God, whom the host of gods worship, .for por pobo. of their own presertation, the Siddhas (the accomplished), because they strive for: bigber, accomplishments, the yogins entirely given to meditation, and having their objects of desire under their control, because they long for liberation, and the sages rich in severe penance, powerful through their cursing as wel as favouring, from deep devotion of the heart !!
2. 'An adoration to the Generator (Savitri), whom even the zealous Brahman sages know. ing the truth, do not fully2 comprehend, who supports the three worlds with his far-reaching rays, whom Gandharvas, gods, Siddhas, Kinnaras and men, praise, as he rises, who fulfils the desires of his devotees !! comprise briefly the ideas which are met with in the Puranas, in the writings of Sauras; which identify the Sun with the world spirit, and even in still older works. Amongst the courtpoets there is one Mayûra, in whose Súryasatakı, a prayer addressed to the Sun, we have almost: every one of the ideas contained in the verses above, repeated and with much the same form of expression. As Vateabhagti praises the Sun as being the generator and the destroyer of the world, BO also Mayûra identifies him, in verse 99, with Brahman, Vishņu and Siva, the three gods who generate, preserve and destroy the Universe. As the prasasti speaks of the worship of the Sun and of the prayers offered to him at dawn, so also does the Saryasataka frequently emphasise the idea that men and spiritual beings adore the Sun in the morning, only with this difference that the number of the divine and semi-diving beings that bring their adoration to the Sun, is much larger therein. In verse 13, the Sun's rays are praised by the seers amongst gods. According to verse 86, the lustre of the rising Sun is eulogized by the Gandharyas both in probe and verse, as also by
ts The numbers of terres should be 6, 8, 9, 14 respectively according to the Nirnaya-Bigars edition of Ragh uosta.
Kytara seoma to bave been taken by Bühler with vidu. V. S.G.