________________
64
LILĀVAI
g) Age of the Poem
The author of the Lilavati does not specify the year when he completed this poem. He does not refer to any contemporary or past king, a patron. He is silent about his predecessors and contemporaries in the field of literature. Naturally, therefore, we are obliged to piece together various bits of information, external and internal, which might enable us to put some definite limits for the date of the composition of the Lilavati.
A. Of the three Mss. available to us, we have seen that B is dated Samvat 1461 or 1471 (-57 =A. D. 1404 or 1414); P is older than B but later than J, though it does not bear any date as such; and J is dated Samvat 1265 (-57 1208 A. D.).
B. 1) Vagbhata is assigned to c. 14th century A. D. He has: written a svopajña commentary called Alamkāratilaka on his Kāvyānuśāsana.' While explaining the definition of Katha, he refers to the Lila. vati in this manner (p. 18):
धीरप्रशान्तनायकोपेता गद्येन पद्येन वा सर्वभाषानुविद्धा कथा ।
आख्यायिकावन्न स्वचरितव्यावर्णकोऽपि तु धीरशान्तो नायकः । तस्य तु वृत्तमन्येन कविना यत्र वर्ण्यते सा काचिद्यमय कादम्बरीवत् । काचित्पद्यमयी लीलावतीवत् । सर्वभाषानुविद्धा संस्कृतप्राकृतेन मागध्या: सौरसेन्या शच्या [ = पैशाच्या ] अपभ्रंशेन वा रचिता कथा ॥
Further in this commentary he has quoted a Prakrit verse to illustrate the usage of a Deśya word, namely tingimchi, in Prakrit; and that verse, as seen in the Notes on gatha 24, is the same as gatha No. 24 of the Lilavati.
==
2) Trivikrama, who composed his Prakrit grammar early in the beginning of the 13th century A. D., quotes a couple of bits of lines from the Lilavati, gāthā Nos. 4 and 24 (see the Notes at the end on these gāthās) to illustrate certain rules of his grammar (I. i. 22).
3) As noted above, p. 35, it is highly probable that Nemicandra (c. 1170), the author of the Kannada Lilavati, was acquainted with this Prakrit poem, Lilavati.
4) Vallabha-Nyāyācārya's (c. 1150) quotation, already noted above, one is inclined to think, refers more to the traditional story of Ed. Kavyamala 43, Bombay 1915, Kane: Sahityadarpaṇa, Bombay 1923, Intro. p. cxxi.
1
2 A. N. Upadhye: A Note on Trivikrama's Date, Annals of the B. O. R. I., XIII, ii, pp. 171-2. See also the Intro, by Dr. P. L. Vaidya to the ed. of the Prakrit Grammar of Trivikrama, Sholapur 1954.
3 See p. 29, footnote 2 above.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
