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4. BHAIRAVANANDA
In the introduction (pp. LXII-LXV) to his edition1 of Rajasekhara's Pk. play Karpūramañjari Ghosh has sought to re-interpret the character of Bhairavananda, the Kaula priest figuring in that play. Konow and Lanman take the words of Bhairavananda in Act I at their face value and accordingly consider him to be depicted as a low priest leading a licentious life and a charlatan. Ghosh criticizes this view of the character of Bhairavānanda and tries to show that the apparently vulgar and immoral words of Bhairavananda possess an inner meaning which sets his character in quite a good light. But if we strictly confine ourselves to the words of the text and their natural tone, it would be difficult for us to accept Ghosh's view. And there is some evidenee to show that as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century A. C. Bhairavananda's character was understood, as by Konow and Lanman, to be drawn in anything but flattering colours.
Certain passages in Puspadanta's Jasaharacariu are express interpolations made by one Gandharva in the year 1308 A.D. One of these interpolated passages (Jas. I. 5.3 to I. 8.17) concerns itself with Kaulacarya Bhairavānanda's visit to king Maridatta. The portrait of the Bhairavananda of this passage is obviously drawn with a view to present a typical Acarya of the Vamamargaboastful, licentious, given to magic lore. Now it appears probable that for this passage as for another passage (Jas. IV. 22. 17 b-IV. 30-15), the material was taken by Gandharva from the work of an earlier poet called Vatsaraja, regarding whom or whose work
1. Manomohan Ghosh, Karpuramañjiri, University ef Calcutta,
1939.
2. P. L. Vaidya, Jasaharacariu (K. J. S. I), 1931, Introduction pp. 17-18.
