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· The Apabhramsa Poet Caturmukha
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11. Paumacariu 71 1 1-2 is as follows :
kațihai angāraya-samkāsau, rehai tamviru phulla-palāsau /
ņam dāvānalu āu gavesau, ko maim daddhu na daddhu paesau// ‘At one place a Palāśa in full bloom, as scarlet as live charcoals, appeared charming : It looked as if it were the forest fire (itself) trying to find out what region it succeeded in burning down and what escaped it!'
This appears to be modelled on the anonymous Ghattă given at Sc. VI 19.1 which runs as follows:
ṇava-phaggune, giri-siharovari phulla-palāsu /
ko daddhu me, ko na daddhu joai va-huāsu // Translation : 'In early Phālguņa the blooming Palāśa on the mountainpeak (appeared) as if it were (forest)fire trying to find out whom it succeeded in burning down and who escaped !
Paumacariu 80 11 Ghattā also mentions phaggune phullapalāsu.. .. .. .. girivare. “The blooming Palāśa in Phālguna on the beautiful mountain,' But as the passages contain no clue to any narrative theme, we cannot decide anything about the attribution of Sc. VI 24. And the possibility for such descriptive passages having been taken from some unknown work of Svayam bhū himself cannot be ruled out.
12. The third work with which Caturmukha is to be credited was an epic about the narrative of Krsna and the Pāndavas. We have several references to this work direct or indirect. Dhavala, who was a Jain poet, states in the second introductory Ghattā of his Harivamsa that he is composing the popular narrative of Hari and the sons of Pāņdu after the manner of Caturmukha and Vyāsa, so that the sacred tradition may not be lost. 18 The implication here perhaps is that to counteract the popularity of the false version of the Bhārata-story, Dhavala undertook to present the true version in accordance with the saered Jain tradition, which perhaps faced during his times some danger of being obscured by the rival version.
