________________
( 18 )
which is a hybrid Sanskrtisation : the correct name to be expected would be either Prasasta-Faktra or Prasasta-rākya. Such are the casual clues to pursue the problem of the earlier sources of Gunabhadra for the tale of Jivandhara.
The pattern of the story of Jivandhara immediately reminds us of the Bșhatkathā of Guņādhya. The Paisācī original is lost (Annals of the. B.O.R.I., XXI, 1-2, pp. 1-37, Poona 1940). But we possess today three Sanskrit adaptations of it: Bộbatkatbāslokasargraba of Budhasyamin (c. 8th century A. D., Brhatkathāmañjarī of Kșemendra (c. 1000 A. D.) Bịhatkathāsaritsāgara of Somadeva (c. 1061-S1 A. D.). It is doubtful whether Budhasyāmin's text had reached the South in the 9th century A. D. But it is a fact that Jinasena knew the BỊhatkathā of Guņādhya in its original, and he specifically refers to it with ingenious slesa in quite complimentary terms (I. 115) :
अद्भुतार्थामिमां दिव्यां परमार्थबृहत्कथाम् ।
लम्भैरनेकैः संदृब्धां गुणाढ्यैः पूर्वसूरिभिः ।। It is quite natural that Guņabhadra might have used it or some other work of that pattern, viz., the Vasudevahindi which seems to have been known to some Tamil authors also (See Hist. of Tamil Lang, and Lit., p. 139). It is a matter for further researches to see how many characters, motifs, contexts and ideas in the Jivandhara story go back to the Brhatkathā. Of the Bșhatkathā there is a Tamil adaptation, Perungadui, with Udayad as its hero, by Konguvel whose date is uncertain: some put him in the 5th or 6th century A.D., while others say that he could be hardly earlier than A.D. 750. Further to Durvinīta (c. 600 A.D.), a Kannada author, is traditionally ascribed a Sanskrit version of Guņādhya's Bịhatkathā. All this means that the elaboration and the growth of the story have to be studied not only with reference to the Uttarapurāņa but also the Bphatkathā versions in different languages.
Side by side with the literary works on Jivandhara, there were being composed, in the South, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Kannada Kāpyas about ather religious heroes like Varānga, Yasodhara and Karakandu; and the story of Jivandbara requires to be compared with them in details. For Yasodhara's story we noir possess the monumental study of the Yaşastilaka by Professor K. K. Handiqui (Sholapur 1949).
