Jain Journal 1985 07

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 30

JULY 1985
Not unlike Bana Mandana has prefaced his epitome with an account of his lineage. While Bana's family was known for its scholastic attainments Mandana’s represented an admixture of riches and letters and was essentially a veritable repository of eminent ministers (I.3), he himself being a peer of Brhaspati (1.13). An abridgement can ill afford the luxury of elaborate descriptions. Mandana therefore has wisely dispensed with a series of descriptions that characterise Kādambari in its inception. He has relegated them in a severely truncated form, towards the close of his narrative and are there to form a link with the earlier segment of the story. Such of the descriptions, as being inextricable ingradients of the main story and therefore essential to its flow and proper understanding he has chosen to incorporate in the epitome are reduced to the barest minimum with practically no possibility to cut them down further. The account of Acchoda lake (1.94-103), the shifting phenomena at dusk (II.64-70) and the nakhasikha description of Kadambari's physical beauty (III.1-18) are cases in point. It may be noted in respect of the latter that while it does not pertake many of the ideas of the original it has the merit of not ignoring any of its salient features and represents a worthy compendium of its parallel in Bana." Mandana's description of the shifting phenomena at the onset of night vis-a-vis Mahasveta's emotional stresses effectively brings out her anguish born of her separation from Pundarika (II.64-70). For the other descriptions that menacingly beset Bana's narrative, Mandana has effectively resisted his temptation that could have well deflected a lesser poet from his goal, exposing him, in the process to ridiculous situations, irrelevant to an abridgement.
Mandana seems to have launched upon his task with the zeal of a missionary and equipment of a well-versed author. He had not only a thorough grasp and transparent understanding of Bana's work, but had also mastered all the nuances of his language and various situations of his narrative. And if the unending similarity in phraseology is any pointer he had commited to heart the whole of Kādambarī almost verbatim. Otherwise it would be difficult to account for the deep sprinkling of Bana's ideas and phrases that KD has received in profusion.
An epitome to have any worth should represent faithfully the soul of the original without lowering its guard against such inroads as tend to impair its purpose. The Kādambari-darpana is faithful to its prototype not only in theme which incidentally is the basic requirement of a compendium, but in the matter of language as well. This two-fold ad
* Kadambari, op. cit., pp. 282-88.