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XIV
Jivasena and Jayantikā. The work is named after the second name of the heroine. The main story is narrated by Chandadanstra a Gandharva who was born on the earth as a result of a curse. As the story proceeds different characters go on narrating the story. The narration is mostly of flash-back type. At each turning point the past story of the hero or heroine or some other important character is given. Thus the story proceeds in a winding way unfolding events within events. This keeps the interest to read further and further inspite of highly scholastic and descriptive style. In between there are refreshing dialogues and instructive passages, plenty of mythological and cultural references are found by way of comparison, metaphor and contrast all along.
The main story of this Prose romance is arranged in five laharis or sections. In the first three sections the first phase of the story, Chāruvaktra and Saugandhini story, is narrated. Chāruvaktra who was the son of Vimatakesari the king of Vaijayanti had to live in Dandakāranya forest with his mother Varamalini as his father was killed by Vrishaskandha who pretended to be his father's friend but had an evil eye on his mother. Therefore, his mother had to leave the palace and live in the forest to bring up her child Chāruvaktra. He learns this fate of his mother and himself from his mother and proceeds to acquire a suitable weapon by performing penance in order to destroy his father's enemy and get back the kingdom. Pleased with his severe penance the gods Indra, Siva and Brahma take interest in him and approach Narayana to help him.
Intervention of the divine personalities in human affairs may look strange and unreal to a modern reader; but for Sanskrit classics there is nothing new or strange about it.
