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meticulously records their pious and impious deeds the consequences of which no one caa escape. Whenever there is an opportunity, religious exhortations are introduced with dogmatic details and didactic discourses. The tendency of introducing stories-in-stories is so prevalent that a careful reader alone can keep in mind the different threads of the story. Illustrative tales are added here and there, being usually drawn from folk-tales and beast-fables; and at all the contexts the author shows remarkable insight into the workings of human mind. The spirit of asceticism is writ large throughout the text; and, almost as a rule, every hero retires from the world to attain better status in the next life.' (BỊbat-Kathākosa, Intro., p. 39).
3. Story of Jivandhara. Like Yasodbara, whose biography is immortalised in Indian literature by master-poets like Somadeva, Vādirāja, Puspadanta and Janna, Jivandhara has become an outstanding hero of a number of works which have evoked the interest and won the appreciation of earnest students of Indian literature.
The outlines of Jivandhara's story, divested of its numerous details, may be put in a nut-shell like this, following Guņabhadra's version.
The king Satyandbara ruled at Rājapura. His queen was Vijayā whose dreams indicated that she was to lose the king soon and to have a great son who would obtain eightfold gain. Subsequently the king lost his life and kingdom through the treachery of his minister Kāşthāngāraka.
The pregnant queen however escaped in an eagle-shaped flying machine, guarded by the Yakṣī, reached a terrific cemetery and gave birth at night to a lovely son. The Yaksī placed jewel-lamps around the nesly born child to protect it from evils and consoled the queen how Karmas were all powerful. Just then there arrived a merchant Gandhotkata who, according to a prophecy, was to have a long-lived son, provided he exposed his newly-born child who would die just after birth. He heard the voice of the newly-born child of Vijayā, and exclaimed Jīva, Jival whereby the boy came to be known as Jivamdhara. Vijayā recognise 1 Gandhotkața and entrusted the child to him. The merchant adopted the child as his own and entrusted it to his wife Nandā. Jivandhara being brought up there was educated by Aryavarman. Vijayā reached a hermitage of ascetics and lived there secretly sustained
