Kansvaho

Author(s): Rama Paniwada, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 26

INTRODUCTION
Lately a Ms. of Kamsavaho is described in the Triennial Catalogue of Mss. in the Govt. Oriental Mss. Library, Vol. VI-Part I Sanskrit, Madras 1935. One of the transcripts used for this. edition is copied from the Madras Ms.
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ii) THE THEME AND THE TITLE.
Rama Pāņivada has composed Kamsavaho (in 233 Prakrit verses divided into four cantos) to celebrate the incident of the slaying of Kamsa by Kṛṣṇa. This event, which is described at length in Srimad Bhagavatam, has something dramatic and thrilling about it. As such it has engrossed the attention of many a literary genius in India from pretty early times; and if the author happens to be a devotee of VisņuKṛṣṇa he is all the more eloquent in glorifying the destruction of that cruel Kamsa at the hands of boy Kṛṣṇa. Tradition attributes a play Kamsavadha to Panini. Patanjali26 discusses the dramatic representation of the slaying of Kamsa, one party painting their faces red and the other black. Among the plays attributed to Bhasa, there is Balacarita which depicts in a lively and vivid manner the various feats of Krsna culminating in the slaying of Kamsa. Among other Sanskrit plays dealing with this incident we might mention Kamsavadham,27 in seven Acts, of Seşakṛṣṇa who was a contemporary of Akbar; then the Kamsavadham of Damodara; 28 and lastly Kamsavadham of Haridasa29 who is a modern author from East Bengal and who, it is said, composed this work at the age of fourteen. Dharma
26 KEITH: Sanskrit Drama p. 32, 36 etc.: M KRISHNAMACHARIAR: Classical Sanskrit Literature, p. 535.
27 Published in Kavyamālā, No. 6, Bombay 1888; See Classical Sanskrit Literature, p. 654.
28 Ibidem, p. 641, foot-note 2.
29 Ibidem, p. 673.