Jain Journal 1988 10

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

Page 13

CAMPUMANDANA
-a little known Jaina Campu
The admixture of prose and poetry, alternating at measured intervals, is first encountered in ancient texts like the Brahmanas, Nirukta, Arthaśāstra and Pañcatantra. The prose therein is intended to serve as a vehicle for the narrative, while the verse sums up the quintessence to facilitate its retention. However the device took pretty long to establish itself as a genre of poetry, popularly known as campu, sometime before Dandin (7th Century), who is the earliest of the poeticians to notice and define it in a manner, which, minor variations apart, continued to hold ground, down the years.1
SATYAVRAT
Notwithstanding the tour de force represented by the Yasastilaka Campu (959 A.D.), to its credit, the Jaina literature suffers from a curious paucity of campus. Coupled with stray recent attempts, Jivandharacampũ and Purudevacampu, besides Somadevas magnum opus, is all that it has to offer by way of this gadyapadyamayi form. It is surprising that despite its undoubted merits, the Campumaṇḍana2 of Mandana, the famed Prime Minister of Mandu, has so far escaped notice.3 It commands attention not only because of its author, who represents probably the last link in the chain of literators who weilded pen and sword with equal effect; but also because of the elevating story of Nemi and Rajimati that it seeks to give, with poetic trappings.
With the ennobling message of the ultimate victory of detachment over attachment, the story has captured the popular imagination, over the years. The peripheral divergences in details notwithstanding, all the sources concur on the essential frame-work of the story that, in essence,
2
1 gadyapadyamayi kaciccampurityapi vidyate, Dandin, Kavyadarsa, I, 31. gadyapadyamayi sanka socchvasa campuh, Hemacandra, Kavyanusasana, 8.9. gadyapadyamayam kavyam campurityabhidhiyate, Sahityadarpana, VI 336. Mandanagranthasamgraha (1), Patan, 1918 A.D.
Kapur Chand Jain, who gives details of all the Jaina campus in his study of Purudevacampu, is not even remotely aware of its existence. Purudevacampu ka Alocanatmak Parisilan, Parimal Publications, Delhi 1985 A.D., Chapter II, pp. 44-76.