________________
31
sent by the former as a mark of affection of an elder brother for his younger brother's wife. 7 On another occasion, the poet gives a realistic description of a lover's lunacy in that he thinks each and every action of bis supposed beloved as generated by her love for, and directed to him although in reality the lady does not in the least harbour any such feeling for him. 18 Similarly there is a highly realistic touch, in consonance with the lofty character of Madanarekha, when, having realized the futility of all the medical treatments given to Yugabahu who is fast collapsing inspite of all of them, she readily acts like a truly affectionate highly practical wife who would try to induct as many of good thoughts and religious feelings as possible into the mind of her husband rather than spoil his last moments by disturbing lamentations.29
It would seem incongruent at first sight that the biographical account of Madanarekha should conclude with the description of youthful ladies madly rushing to the windows to see king Nami entering the city in royal procession. But, in all probability, the poet seems to have been actuated by his desire to emulate Kalidasa, Ašvaghoşa and others in delineating the motif, and to indirectly extol the exhalted personality of king Nami and thereby that of his celebrated mother Madanarekhā, while at the same time to conclude bis work with a happy note of joy in keeping with his personal poetic stamp, viz., the “Mudanka", which he has specially put at the end of each of the Ucchväsas.
(iv) The didactic art of the poet-preacher :
When a preacher resorts to poetry it is but natural that preaching would invariably enjoy a predominent place in his poetry. A first rate poet would never allow his preaching to get the better of his poetry which he may harness to preaching in a bighly suggestive manner. Jinabhadrasūri is a preacher as well as literary craftsman of the first order but as a poet he belongs rather to the second order in that he would rarely allow his reader to draw the morals of the story and the incidents for himself, and would instead heavily impose himself and his conclusions on the reader, as if he does not want to leave any chance of being taken otherwise than what he explicitly wants to emphasize himself. As a result his preaching heavily weighs down his poetry, since he tries to exploit the metrical aspect of the Campu style mostly for the purpose of propounding religious morals, though also for that of the descriptions of persons,
27. Op. cit., pp. 48–50 ; 70–71. 20. Op. cit., p. 69 (8ff.). 29. Op. cit., pp. 102-103.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
