________________
210
Prakrit and Apabhramśa Studies
There is a gap of some three centuries between the Bhāgavata and the two lyricists. Which predecessors, if any, did inspire or influence the latter ? Where does Rādhā, absent in the early Purāņic sources, come from ? These questions have not been satisfactorily answered.?
A glance at the few Prakrit and Apabhramsa works preserved from the extensive literature produced during the post-Gupta period shows that Kșşņa's childhood exploits and his love-sports with Rādhā and other Gopis were for the poets themes of perrenial interest. Onwards from the fifth century, there was a tradition with the Prakrit poets to include for homage Kțşņa also in the deity-list figuring in the opening section (mangalācaraña) of their poems.
Thus Pravarasena's Setubandha (5th Cent. A. D.) refers to the killing of Arişta, the Bull-demon (1 3), and to the robbing of Pārijāta from Indra's paradise3 (I 4).
The Mangalācaraṇa in Vākpatirāja's Gaudavaha (731-735 A.D.), while praising various incarnations of Vişņu refers to Krsna's garland of wild flowers (v. 20), his yellow garment and dark skin (v. 27), his lotus-face kissed by Yasodā (v. 21) and his chaste bearing the nail-marks of Rādhā4 (v. 22)
Koühala's Lilāvai-kahā (c. 800 A.D.), besides referring en bloc to Krsna's exploits like breaking the pair of the Arjuna trees, killing Arişța, Keśin and Kamsa and lifting the Govardhana (v. 6), describes separately Arista-vadha etc. as follows : (1) Krşna's powerful dark arm, like Yama's noose, encircled Arista's
throat (v. 4). (2) Krşņa's one arm clutched Keśin's neck, and the elbow of the
other arm blocked the demon's mouth (v. 7). (3) As the infant Kțşņa tried to cross the threshold but could
not, his leg hanged in the air and the scene was being witnessed by Balabhadra with suppressed laughter (v. 3).
There is no doubt that numerous poetic and dramatic works dealing wholly or partly with Krşņa's life continued to be written
