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Vol. XXXII
JAIN JOURNAL
No. 2 October
AN ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS OF THE KĀLAKĀCHĀRYA KATHANAKA
BY
B. N. MUKHERJEE
The Kalakachāry-Kathānaka is a well-known cycle of legends found in Jaina scriptures and texts. One of its episodes deals with the quarrel between Kalakacharya and Gardabhilla, the king of Ujjayini. The important features of this episode, found in different long and short versions, may be enumerated as follows.
Kalaka, according to most of the earliest versions2, was a son of Vairasimha (variants-Vairasiha. Vajrasimha. Versimha, Vayarasiha3, etc.), the king of Dharāvāsa. He became a Jaina monk and went to Ujjayini where his sister Sarasvati (called Silamai in one version) also resided in a Jaina convent.
1997
King Gardabhilla (also called Dappana in one edition) of Ujjayini was fascinated by the beauty of Sarasvati and ravished her. The enraged Kalaka left the city and according to the Long Anonymous Version, travelling "steadily came to the bank called the Scythian bank" (anavarayam ca gacchanto patto Sagakulam nama kulam). In the
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1. The story is reconstructed here on the basis of a comparison of different published versions of the text. We have considered the earlier Prakrit and Sanskrit recensions, and not the later renderings in Gujrat or in mixed Sanskrit and Gujarati. For a description of different recensions, see N. Brown. The Story of Kalaka. pp. 25-35 and S.M. Nawab, The Collection of Kalaka Story, pt.1.pp. 1-32.
2. Op. cit. 37, 71, 87, 93 and 98.
3. Ibid.
4.
5. N. Brown. Op. cit, p. 102.
6.
N. Brown, Op cit, p. 40.
Ibid, p. 102. In the Nisithachurnni the name of the sister is given as Rupavati (see n. 9).
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