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Sanskrit Sub-story and Subhasitas in the Prakrit....
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dramas wherein noble character speaks in Sanskrit. Further, he may have resorted to showing off his bilingual poetic skill inasmuch as such a feat was prestigious and popular among the poets and known among the rhetoricians as the Manipravāla style, which is adopted also by our poet's predecessors like Vardhamāna-sūri and Sri-candrasūri. In fact almost all the classical Sanskrit dramas are originally composed in this style, since different characters use different languages like Sanskrit and various Prakrits. Rājasekhara has prescribed the mastery of various languages and skill in depiction of various sentiments as essential for a supreme poet (kavirāja)', and all the classical poets naturally strived to exhibit their poetic competence to reach up to this standard, long before Rājasekhara and subsequent to him. This was because both Sanskrit and Prakrit existed side by side and both generally were popular and understood by people at large and specifically the élite. The Manipravāla style comprises in composing parts of the text of a work in different languages, here Sanskrit and Prakrit, much in the same way as a goldsmith or a jeweller would string together a necklace of coral (pravāla) by interspersing it with gems (mani), to enhance its beauty and charm.
The sub-story presents an allegorical narrative which is a very brief resumé of the story, much in the style, of the famous Upamiti-bhavaprapañcā-kathā of Siddharşi (A. D. 906), in which the author's intention is that the reader should compare himself with the hero Samsāri-jīva (transmigratory soul), and thus as it were be warned of the dangers lurking in transmigration. The idea is to present the vices, virtues, and neutral principles of life in typical characters, which the reader may use as a standard of comparison (upamiti) to judge his own life. The Jaina understanding of life and of the universe of transmigration is presented here and the aim is to teach the way to release (moksa) or bliss (nirvana). It is shown further that the vices produce unhappiness and the virtues the happiness even in transmigration, besides being respectively obstacles and aids to escape from it. The idea of an allegory arises from the personification of the vices, virtues and so on as characters in the story, as for instance, here the Saṁsāri-jīva himself is such an allegorical character, being typical of all such souls?.
Now about the Subhasitas. Devasūri has inserted about 24 Subhasitas, out of which some have been authored by others and merely quoted by him.
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