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JAIN JOURNAL : Vol-XXXIII, No. 4 April 1999 Vikramārjuna-Vijayam olim Pampa-Bhāratam, a mahākāvya in fourteen cantos; it recounts in epic style the story of Maha-Bhārata of Vyāsa, at the same time eulogizes the Cālukya king and patron of the poet.
The classic conflict between the god Siva in the form of a Kirāta, a chief of hunter class, and Arjuna, the valient man, hero of the epic, being witnessed by the goddess Pārvati herself present, and finally ending in the latter's attainment of the invaluable weapon the Pasupatāstra is described in such a way that the reader gets an impression of the poet engrossed.
Adipurānam is another work of Pampa, which he could compose within three months whereas he took six months to complete the other Kävya. The fact that he could author two major compositions within the stipulated span of nine months, speaks of his accomplishment as a gifted writer. Pampa was born in the year C.E. 902 and when he achieved the feat of completing two mahā-kāvyas in the year C.E. 941, he was in his early age of 39 years old. He further confirms that he was born in a Dundubhi-samvastara, the fifty-sixth year in the cycle of sixty, and that his voice was so distinct and dignified as the sound of dundubhi, a large kettle drum.
Devendra-muni, a famous Jaina Ācārya of the period, was the preceptor of Pampa; Indra-III (914-29), the Rastrakūta emperor, was also a lay votary of the adept Devendra-muni. Pampa and his younger brother Jinavallabha were also lay followers of Jayanandi-bhattāraka of Pandarapalli (Pandarapura). Of the two compositions in the mārgastyle, of the poet Pampa, Vikramārjuna-Vijayam is easily the best, an account of its copious action, the rich melody and fine imagery of its verse; the description of the war camps and the reactions of the soldiers is par excellence. It depicts the pomp and inevitable circumstances of war, the gruesome details of the battlefield. Pampa had the first hand knowledge of the field of battle. War is a common theme, but none could match the quality of Pampa.
Adipurānam is a work of artistic perfection admittedly distinguished in the field of religious literature. In fact the bhāvā-valis (successive births) have substituted the concept of avatāras, a main theme of Vişnu-purāņas. Mahāpurāņa of Jinasena and Guņabhadradeva had standardised the narration of transmigration or the cycle of the former and the future existence. Adipurāna, a campū in sixteen cantos, handles the Jaina legendary theme of Rşbhadeva, his sons and daughters, with considerable force and power and excells its source of Jinasena's Sanskrit Adipurāņam (C. 850 A.D.) the first part of
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