Jain Journal 1997 10

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

Page 30

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL GLIMPSES FROM THE KUVALAYAMĀLĀ*
A.N. UPADHYE Lately the Kuvalayamālā of Uddyotansuri has been edited by me (Singhi Jain Series, No. 45, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavana, Bombay, 1959). It is a unique Campü in Prakrit. Though it is Dharmakathā, it is samkirņa in character, with the result that its contents are not only didactic but replete with details pertaining to various walks of life. There is a stylistic Digest of it in Sanskrit by Ratnaprabhasūri (lately edited by me as a supplement to the above); but the varied details are conspicuously absent in the Sanskrit Digest the primary object of which is to narrate the tales in a classical Sanskrit style so usual in the works of Dandin, Bāna and others.
The Kuvalayamālā (in Prākrit) bristles with striking social and cultural touches of great interest. The author draws his chief characters from the different well-known layers of the society. By birth Candasoma was a Brahmin; Mānabhata, a Ksatriya; Māyāditya, a Vaisya; Lobhadeva, a Sudra; and Mohadatta, a prince. The pilgrimage to Ganga and other holy Tirthas was prescribed by the priest as a prāyacitta against various sins (48 f., 63 f., 72 f.), though not approved of by the author. A typical Tirthayātrika is described with reference to his dress and equipments (58.1 f., see also 48.24 f.). A famine or draught of twelve years often led people to migrate for food and prosperity (E 202). The author supplies a list of respectable ways of earning wealth (57.22 f., also 191.1 f.) and also of benevolent channels of spending it (65.8 f.) Though Vārānasi had many good and bad openings for earning wealth (57.16 f.) it was Daksiņapatha, with Pratisthāna as an important town therein, that was looked upon as a prosperous territory by the traders (57.27 f.), whose preparations for a trade-trip and onward travel from camp to camp (65.13 f., 135.21 f., 198.23 f.) are noteworthy. We get a good sketch of the preparation of a trader's fleet; the rituals are interesting, and the various items in the boat deserve special attention (61.1 f.). Often the trade-routes pass through perilous forests (& 118). In the vicinity of the Sahya mountain, there were parties of Bhillas who often robbed the caravans (135.27 f.). Their Pallis (for instance, the Cintamani, p. 139) seem to be pretty prosperous
Reprinted from C.L. Jain Feliciation Volume