Book Title: Kumarpal Charita
Author(s): Shankar Pandurang Pandit
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

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Page 19
________________ INTRODUCTION xit and several generals of that king meet with death at their hands. After reducing the power and pride of the king of Cedi ( Tripuri, modern Tipparah ) the army of Kumārapāla is described as establishing its camp on the banks of the Revā; the crooodiles in its deep waters and the gardens on its spacious banks are mentioned as suffering at the hands of his brave soldiers. The army then crosses the river Jamunā and assails the king of Mathurā, who being aware of his weakness, protects his town by gratifying the assailants by presents of gold. The potentates finally mentioned as contributing to the greatness of Kumārapāla are " the king of Jangala”, “the ruler of Turkish Mahomedans", and "the Emperor of Delhi, " This takes us to the end of the sixth canto of the poem, at the end of which the poet describes the hero as hearing the praises offered by the king of Jangaia and then going to sleep. . The seventh canto introduces the hero as waking up early in the morning and meditating on the serious duties of man and the verses in the canto are couched in the words of the hero. The last two cantos do not refer to any historical events but contain moral and religious · reflexions. After describing how the sinful acts of a man cause his soul to wander about in the universe and how saints are happy in holy places when free from the influence of love, and after effectively denouncing the conduot of vicious men and women and the evil consequences of yielding to the influence of women, the hero is made to bestow praises on such individual saints as Sthūlabhadra, Vajra, Gajasukumāra, Gautama, Abhayakumāra, Sudharma, Jambū, Prabhava, and to extol the Jaina doctrine and Jaina teachers and ascetics generally. Then after describing the necessity of confining devotion to the five principal Jaina deities, the hero offers prayer

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