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The Sadayavatsa-kathā
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Sadayavaccha-Sävalimgi-Pāṇigrahaņa-Caupai. Both these works have been given in the appendix by Manjulal Majumdar in his edition of Bhima's poem. Agarchand Nahta has given us a survey of different early and late versions of the tale current in Rajasthan and Gujarat".
13. There is one more reference to the tale of Suddaya, once again from an Apabhramsa poet. And if this tale is the same as the one we are considering here then the date of the earliest literary composition about the adventures of Suddaya can be shifted back by a century. The reference concerns the great Apabhramsa poet Svayambhūdeva, the author of the epics Paumacariya and the Ritthanemicarira. In the latter work, which has been partly published so far, we find the following verse, which expresses exhaustion on the part of the poet after continuous life-long literary activity. 12
kāūņa Pomacariyam Suddhayacariyar ca guna-gan'agghaviyam Harivansa-moha-harane Sarassai sudhiya-deha-yya
The poet here says that after having composed the Paumacariya and the Suddayacariya full of literary merits, his Sarasvati (literary powers) seems to have become exhausted in the present task of clearing delusions regarding the Harivamśa narrative.13 Here it is quite likely that Svayambhū’s Suddayacariya was a poem dealing with the tale of Suddayavira. Of course we cannot be definite about this as Pk. Ap. Suddaya stands also for Sk. Sūdraka and we have references to several Sūdraka-kathis composed in Prakrit and Apabhraíśa
But it should be noted that Svayambhü has composed works on Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata and his third work Suddayacariya might have handled the popular tale of Suddaya. We have already taken note of two Apabhramśa' poets, Nayanandin and Abdala Rahamāna, talking about the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and the Suddaya tale in the same breath.
14. The sources and precedents of the Sūdravatsa tale remain to be investigated. We may point out here some significant parallels to a few of its episodes and motifs. The episode of a courtesan
