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INTRODUCTION
57
Though it is difficult to say how long after the completion of Mahápurāna, the Yasodhara-carita and Nagakumāra-carita were written, this much is certain that they were written after the Mahāpurāna, because during the composition of the latter, Bharata was the minister of the King, but when the other two works were composed, his son Nanna is said to have occupied that office. The king has been referred to by the name of Vallabharāya in these two works also, and on their manuscripts we find the marginal note "Krşnarāja." This is a mistake. As we have seen Khoțţigadeva had already succeeded Krşñarāja even before the completion of Mahapurana."
4. POPULARITY OF JASAHARA WITH THE JAINA WRITERS
Jasahara or Yaśodhara, the hero of the present work, seems to be highly popular with both the sects of the Jainas, Well-known literary figures like Haribhadra handled the theme, and works bearing the title Yaśodharacarita are found in Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhramsa, old Gujarati, old Hindi, old Tamil and old Kannada. I have been so far able to collect over twentyfive authors on the theme, and I do not feel confident that my list is exhaustive.
1. Somadeva composed his Yaśastilakacampū, a huge work in Sanskrit prose and verse. He completed the work in 881 of the Saka era, i. e., in 959 A. D. It is printed and published by the Nirnayasagara Press, Bombay, together with the commentary of Śrutasāgara.
2. Vasavasena composed in Sanskrit a Yasodharacarita in eight cantos It is in verse and the predominent metre is anuştubh. It is this poet who is mentioned in the passages added to Puşpadanta's work and therefore must be earlier than 1308 A. D. There are two MSS. of this work, No. 550 of 1884-86 and No. 307 of 1883-84 at the Bhandarkar Institute. At the opening of his work Vásavasena mentions Prabhanjana and Harişeņa as his predecessors in writing on Yaśodaracarita :
सर्वशास्त्रविदां मान्यैः सर्वशास्त्रार्थपारगैः ।
TTTfcf7: Đà affeinfan: liềII यदुक्तं तत्कथं शक्यं मया बालेन भाषितुम् । तथापि तत्क्रमाम्भोजप्रणामार्जितपुण्यतः ॥४॥ प्रोच्यमानं समासेन संसारासारसातनम् ।
पठतां शृण्वतां यत्तत्सन्तस्तच्छणुतादरात् ॥५|| The description of the marriage of Yaśodhara which Gandharva added to Puşpadanta's work and which, he says, is based upon Vasavasena's work is found in the second canto of the work.
3. Sakalakirti composed a Yaśodharacarita in Sanskrit, probably after the model of Vasavsena's work. It is also written in anuşçubh metre and in eight cantos. There are two MSS. of this work, No. 1469 of 1886–92 and No. 1051 of 1887-91 at the Bhandarkar Institute. One of these MSS. is dated Samvat 1806 but is itself copied from an other old MS. dated Samvat 1776, i. e., 1719 A. D. Sakalakirti, however, must have lived about 1450 A. D., as his grand-pupil Jñanabhūşana wrote his Tattva--Jñanatarangini in Samvat 1560, i, e., in 1503 A. D. See Rai Bahadur Hiralal's Catalogue, Introduction, page xxxviii.
4. Vadiraja, otherwise known as Kanakasena Vadirāja, composed a Yaśodharacarita in Sanskrit in four cantos. There is published an edition of this work in
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