Nirgrantha-1

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 88

A GLIMPSE INTO THE SANSKRIT AND OTHER FORMS OF DRAMA IN MEDIEVAL GUJARAT
Govardhan Panchal
The region known as Gujarat received this designation during the rule of its first Caulukya monarch, Mülarāja I. Their capital was then known as Anahillapāțaka, Pattana, or Anahillapura, and now as Patana in North Gujarat. Anahillapura was, for nearly 250 years, a prosperous city and a seat of learning, culture, and trade. Caulukya was the golden period of the history of Gujarat.
Siddharāja Jayasimha (A.D. 1095 -1144), the greatest of the Caulukya monarchs of Gujarat, expanded the kingdom's frontiers by his conquests of Māļavā in Madhya Pradesh and Mevād in west Rajasthan, the Lāța territory had been already incorporated in south Gujarat. In Dharā, when he noticed the great bhandāras of manuscripts and an atmosphere of learning, he felt its dearth in Gujarat. He took steps to encourage men of different sects, brāhmaṇas as well as Jainas, to write on the various aspects and in different categories of Sanskrit literature. In his kingdom flourished Jaina scholars and brāhmaṇa pandits. Among them had prominently stood a great Jaina pontiff, Ācārya Hemacandra.
Siddharāja Jayasimha was an enlightened king and during his time many temples were built which were enriched by figural sculptures showing postures which accorded with the karaṇas of Bharata's Natyaśāstra. He built a great reservoir in the environs of the capital and aptly called it 'Sahasralinga', because a thousand Sivalinga shrines encircled its banks. He also built vidyāpīthas for the students and the teachers, both of whom lived there free. Any learned man wanting to pursue his studies could stay there as long as he wished, and free of sustenance worries.
The king was in the habit of touring in the city, often in cognito for finding out as to how the people fared and what they said. Once, disguised as a lay man, he entered one of the temples, named Karņameru. There, a Sanskrit play was being staged. He took his seat by the side of an ordinary man who was engrossed in watching the play. After a while, to his surprise, that man rested his hand on his shoulder. He did this again and again, offered betel nuts and camphor to his neighbour, the king, who responded by accepting these.
After the play, the king asked his attendents to find out all about the man. The next day, to his court, he summoned the man and told him : "My neck is aching from the weight of the hand that you rested on it last night.” But the man, with quick wit as he was, replied: "If Your Majesty does not feel the weight of the whole earth, reaching the verge
Jain Education Intemational