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Prakrit and Apabhraíša Studies
cycle is the motif....K 1335 that we have been examining. It is a floating motif of sexual fantasy, of ancient date, as attested both by its wider spread throughout India and by its occurrence in the Kathāsaritsāgara, and of some popularity in South India. It has been seized upon as a fitting episode in the depiction of mystic love by Krşņa bhakti movement of South India, first in early Tamil bhakti Literature (attested in the earlier epic), and then by the composer of the Sanskrit Bhagavatapuraņa in the 9th-10th Century-even though the episode can hardly be said to be a closely-knit element in the story line.'
2. Now thanks to Bhoja's Śrngāraprakāśa (11th Cent. A.D.), we come to know that the motif under discussion, as attested in the second of the two passages that Emeneau has referred to, most probably already occurred in the Vaddakahā (i.e. Bțahatkathā), the Paiśācī treasure-house of stories written by Guņādhya, which is lost and which was the ultimate source of the Kathāsaritsāgara. The Paiśāci passage cited in the Sțăgăraprakāśa relates to the very incident which we find in Kathāsaritsāgara 121 (=18.2), vv. 109114. The passage occurs on p. 937 in the Spřgāraprakāśa. Raghavan has discussed 'it (p. 850) and shown its great significance. The peculiar name of the gambler (the hero of the story) is also tell-tale.
Of the three variants of that name, Thinthākarāla, Gențakarāla and Tențākarāla, the last one is correct. temță (or timțā) is nonSanskritic and occurs frequently in Apabhramśa texts and is glossed as dyūta-sthāna ‘a gambling house or gambling den'. Hence tențākarāla means 'the terror of the gambling house', a designation quite appropriate for the inviterate, diehard gambler.
Thus we can date the earliest occurrence of the motif of Ciraharaṇa in the Indian literature in the first or second century A. D., the probable date of the Vaddakahā. In the light of this evidence, the view that the Vastraharaṇa motif is based on a
1. For the slightly enended and restored text of the passage see
Bhayani and Shah, 1987, Introduction, p. 75.
