Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 702

THE POPULAR TALE OF CANDANA-MALAYAGIRI : 231
his name. His is a common rather than a proper' noun. Narapat Vanjārā is a character moulded in the same pattern.
Malayāgiri is not harassed but helped by Narpata Vanjārā. This character of a typical Vanjārā-mostly by the name of Lākhā Vanjārā—is also a very interesting subject for the folk-tale study. We find the same romantic character in the well-known stories like Nemivijaya's Silavati-no-rās; Samala's Bhadrā Bhāmini and MadanaMohani etc. There are other innumerable short episodes which bring out the different facets of this lovable and famous Vanjārā's character.
One significant point regarding all the versions is that all of them contain a key couplet which can be said to be a sort of the summing up of the story. In the non-Prākrit Versions the trenchant Duha couplet on the adversity of Fate is as follows:
" किहां चंदन, किहां मलयागिरि, किहां सायर, किहां नीर
जिम जिम पडइ अवत्थडी, तिम तिम लहइ सरीर ।"
In Gunacandra's story too we find a Gāthā with a similar purport. There, Naravikrama, after losing his wife and sons says:
कह नियनयरश्चाओ? कहेत्थ वासो ? कहिं गया भज्जा ? कह पुत्तेहि विओगो? कह वा नइवेगहणं च ।
--P. 100, parettafet (Devchand Lālbhai Granthamālā, No. 75)
But the concept, "frei 9767 ? PET REYf?" etc., figures characteristically in many a medieval folk-tales and hence on account of it the “Naravikrama-Candana-Story" can be reasonably suspected of having a folk-tale origin and not an out-right creation of Guna candra.
H
___ This finds a support from the fact that the Duhā, “किहां चन्दन? किहां
T ?" appears also in Karmana's Sitä-Harana (V. S. 1526-A.D. 1470) with a very slight difference. It also shows that this story might have been very much in vogue amongst the people much before either Karmaņa or Bhadrasena.
In all the versions of the story the small family of four-Candana Malayāgiri and their two sons Sāyara and Nira--are separated from each other; and they drift apart due to the vagaries of the Fate and the viles of man.