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prabandha of this Prabındhävali “are traced in a corrupt form to the Prthviraja-rāso ascribed to poet Canda, a friend and contemporary of Pythvirāja, the last Hindu sovereign of Delhi. These citations have gone a long way to show that the published Pythvirāja-räso is not a later work in toto, as some scholars are inclined to believe, but that the Rāso has very old nucleus, which is earlier than at least 1234 A. D., the date of Jinabhadra's work.”†
The following may be enumerated, in their chronological order, as other outstanding specimens of the Prabandha Literature :
(1) The Prabhāvakacarita of Prabhá candra (1277 A.D.), written throughout in verse, first published by the Nirņaya Sāgara Press, Bombay in 1909 A.D. and then in a more perfect form by Muni Jina vija yaji as no. 13 of the Singhi Jaina Series in 1940 A.D. It contains 22 prabandhas relating the life-stories of the principal Svetāmbara pontiffs right from Vajra. swāmin (c. Ist cent. B.C.) up to Hem a cand rãcārya (12th cent. A.D.), in continuation of Hemacandra's Parisistaparvan or Sthaviravalicarita. It includes important historical anecdotes regarding a number of great kings and poets of outstanding importance.
(2) The Prabandhacintāmaņi of Merutun gācārya (1305 A.D.), as a specimen of the Prabandha form par excellence, gives a large number of historical dates, a feature not common in Sanskrit literature. “It is a principal source-book of the history of medieval Hindu Gujarāta from the times of Cauluk ya Mūlarāja to the end of the Hindu rule, i.e., it covers roughly the period from the middle of the 19th cent. to the end of the 13th cent. A.D."* It was published by Muni Jina vija y aji as no. I of the Singhi Jaina Series in 1933. It contains in all 135 prabandhas under main topics divided into 5 Prakāśas.
(3) The Kalpa-pradipa or Vividhatirthakalpa of Jina prabha (1333 A.D.) is a unique work, important from both historical as well as geograpbical view-points, serving as a guide-book, so to say, for all the prominent holy places of Jaina religion which existed in the 14th cent. It comprises 61 Kalpas or chapters out of which 12 are hymns, 7 are biographies and the rest are descriptions of holy places of pilgrimage. It was published by Muni Jinavija y aji as no. 10 of the Singhi Jaina Series in 1934 A.D. It
+ PPS, Introduction, pp. 8-10; LCV, p. 145. * LSJS, P. 2.
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