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No. I. 1
NAYAKUMARACARIU.
nāmānkita, stamped with the name of Nanna. He has been highly eulogised at the beginning of the work and in the ending prasasti. One of ois adjectives, Vicchinna-Sarāsai-bandhava' seems to me to suggest that Nanna took particular interest in the revival of Prakrit poetry which was going out of use as we know that almost all of the Jaina authors who flourished immediately before Puspadanta, for example Jinasena, Gunabhadra and Somadeva, wrote in Sanskrit Of the other brothers of Nanna, Sohana and Gunavarma or Gunadharma, while yet young, had a hand in inducing the poet to compose the Nayakumaracariu, and Dangaiya is mentioned in the prasasti. The office of minister. ship was hereditory in the family but there seems to have been an interruption just before Bharata who is said to have restored the family to the position which it had lost. In the verse prefixed to the second chapter of Jasa haracariu, mention is made of Nanna's sons. Thus in Puspadanta's works we find mention of the four generations of this illustrious family associated with the ruling dynasty of Manyakheta during the tenth century.
4. THE STORY IN BRIEF The story of Nagakumara is briefly as follows :
Jayandhara was the king of Kanakapura in the Magadha country, From his first wife Visalanetra he had a son named Srîd hara. He later on married Prthvidevi, the princess of Girinagara, from whom he got another son. While yet a baby, he inadvertantly fell into a well where he was protected by a Naga who adopted him, gave him the name of Nagakumari and educated him. He then returned to his father and married two dancing girls, Ktnnari and Manohari. He subdued a vicious horse and a ferocious elephant which had defied the attempts of his elder brother at subjugation. His growing power made his elder brother jealous of him and he tried to remove him out of his way altogether. The attempt made by Sridhara on his life fortunately failed owing to the presence, as his body-guard, of Vyala, a prince of Mathura who had become his friend and attendant. In order to avoid a fratricidal war between his sons Jayandhara ordered Nagakumara to go out of the realm and come back only when called in. So Nayakumara quited the realm accompanied by his two wives and his friend Vyāla.
The period of exile was full of adventures and unfailing good luck for Nugakumara. He went to Mathura and compelled the king-regent to release the princess of Kanyakubja whom he had imprisoned. He went to Kasmira and won the hand of the princess by his skill in luteplaying. He went to the Ramyaka forest where he acquired many
