Kavi Paramesvara Or Paramessthi

Author(s): A N Upadhye
Publisher: A N Upadhye

Page 7

SAMARAMIYANKA KAHĀ OF HARIBHADRA
Dr. A. N. Upadhye, Kolhapur.
Uddyotanasūri, the author of Kuvalayamāla ( completed on 21st March, 779, A. D.) was a disciple of Haribhadra; and any information he gives about his guru deserves our special attention. He speaks about his guru thus in the introductory' verses of the Kuvalayamálā :*
जो इच्छइ भवविरहं भवविरहे को ण वंदए सुअणो । समयसयसस्थगुरुणो. समरमियंका कहा जस्स ॥
Clearly this is a respectful reference to Haribhadrat who is well-known as virahu ika and who is proved to be the guru of Uddyotana. According to Uddyotana, then, Haribhadra composed Samaramiyaikā kahā which has been all along rendered into Sanskrit as Samara-mrgānka Kathā.
The statement of Uddyotana is quite clear, and naturally various questions can be raised. Is it that Haribhadra wrote a Samara-mrgānkā-katha besides his famous Samarāditya--kathā; or is it that the phrase samara-miyamki kahi only refers to the present Samaraicca-kaha ? The first question has to be answered in the negative, because no other source, as far as I know, has attributed an additional work, Samara-mrgārka by name, to Haribhadra. A comparison of the concluding verse of the Samarāditya Katha, which runs thus,
जं विरइऊण पुण्णं महाणुभावचरियं मए पत्तं । तेण इहं भवविरहो होउ सया भवियलोयस्स ।।
with the verse of Kuvalayamālā, quoted above, hardly leaves any doubt that Uddyotana has the present Samarāicca-kahā in view. As long as we render the title in Sanskrit as Samara-mrgārkā Kathā, we will be forced to find out how mugika can mean aditya, and wheider the Sanskrit language supplies any reference to the effect that migänka did mean 'sun' as well, beside the pormal meaning 'moon'.
* I have on hand a critical edition of this important Prakrit campû based on the Ms. material so kindly entrusted to me by Shri Jinavijayaji, I am quoting this verse from a transcript.
Seo Jocobi's Iutro. to his ud of the Samaräiccakaha, BI. No. 169, Calcutta 1926.
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