Indological Studies

Author(s): H C Bhayani
Publisher: Parshva Prakashan

Page 22

12
Literary and Performing Arts
gatherings poets presented their new poems before connoiseurs of literature and there were contests in the art of extempore composition. These literary clubs were variously called Kavigoshi,
Onwards from at least the beginning centuries of the Christian era there used to be gatherings of poets and critics, usually under the patronage of kings, ministers or rich merchants. In these Vidagdhagosthig or simply Goșthi. In these Vidagdhagosthis Prakrit poetry was equally favoured as Sanskrit poetry. Many of the short Prakrit poems consisting of a single self-standing verse i.e. the poems of the Muktaka type such as we find e.g. in the anthologies like the Saptaśataka of Hāla (who, significantly, was famous as “kavi-vatsala') and the Vaj jālagga, were probably composed or first published in a Vidagdha-gosthi.
The type and style of Prakrit poetry represented by the Gāthās of the Saptaśataka indicate a marked preference for the theme of love-clandestine love, to be more specific. It provided ample scope for conveying hidden meanings and subtle undertones. This was also necessitated by the one-verse range of the Muktaka and the increasing sophistication, formality and technique-dependence of Sanskrit and Prakrit literatures in general. As a result of these factors, we get two difierent kinds of Prakrit poems characteristically associated with the Vidagdhas : highly suggestive erotic verses, and entertaining verses, displaying verbal skill and used for diversion or playing literary games. The first kind is typically illustrated by the two verses of Bhattendurāja cited by Abhinavagupta as instances of the HỊdayavati Gāthā of the Satprajñas. Their theme is clandestine love and their charm depends upon the Vācya characterized by subordinated Vyañgya. The verses of the second kind fall under the category of Citra-kāvya. They are based on such Sabdālamkāras as are usually treated under the names of Prahelikā, Gūdha, Cyuta, Praśnottara, Vākovākya etc. Many of them are known to the Alamkārikas beginning with the predecessors of Bhāmaha, and several rhetoricians like Rudrața, Bhoja10 and Hemacandra who have treated them at varying length. Daņdin (and Bhoja, Hemacandra etc. after him) states that this type of verses