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68
LILAVAI
Sulumki, Solamki or Calukya army in this way (No. 1068): अग्गिम याणे रउड - साहणं पच्छिमे सुलुंकीण | तलवग्गो सह पहुणा वचेज्जउ मज्झहारीए ॥
We cannot take the author to mean that at the time of Satavahana there were armies controlled by the two dynasties, Rastrakūta and Calukya, because it would be an anachronism and it has no support from the facts of history. Perhaps the author has in his mind the movements of these armies in his days. He does not tell us to what part of India he belonged. He shows fair acquaintance with the locality of Sapta-Godavari Bhima and he is writing in Marahattha Desi-bhāsā. It is quite likely, therefore, that he has in view the movements of the armies of Calukyas and Rastrakūtas. The rulers of these two dynasties were now and then at war with each other. By about the middle of the 8th century the Rastrakūtas became more prominent after the overthrow of Calukya Kirtivarman II, sometime about A. D. 753.1 Minor attacks from the Calukyas of Vengi continued for some time; and the reign of Amoghavarsa (c. 815-77) was spent in constant wars with them. It may not be quite wrong if we presume that our author has in view the political conditions of Deccan, especially the north-eastern sector of it, by about the middle of 8th century A. D.
E. As discussed above, the characters of Mahanumati, Lilavati and Kuvalayavali remind us of those of Mahāśveta, Uṣā-VasavadattāRatnavali and Sakuntala respectively. For this reason and taking into consideration common parallel expressions and striking ideas, one can presume that the author of the Lilavati was acquainted with the works of Kalidasa (c. 400 A. D.), Subandhu (c. 6th century A. D.), Bāņa3 and Harsa (first half of the 7th century A. D.).
It is possible that some gāthās from the Lilavati, especially those from the introductory mangala, show the influence of the Gauḍavaho of Vakpati whose literary career is assigned roughly to the first quarter of the 8th century or between 700 and 725 A. D.
At certain places the Lilavati has close phraseological agreement in some descriptions with the Samaräiccakaha® of Haribhadra (c. 750 ).
1
V. A. Smith: Early History of India, Oxford 1914, p. 427.
2 See Notes on gatha 779.
3 See the Notes on 213, 268, 301 and 1106.
4 See the Notes on 79, 158, 516 and 570.
5
See the Notes on 1, 9, 11 etc.
6 See the Notes on gathās Nos, 838-41, 1295, 1297-9.
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