Prakrit Verses in Sanskrit Works on Poetics Part 02

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: B L Institute of Indology

Page 36

Prakrit Verses in Sanskrit Works on Poetics
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looked beautiful like the moon, marked with its dark spot, and delighted Hari. In order to soften her anger Hari decides to fall prostrate at her feet. Clasping his own crown with both the hands he throws himself down prostrate. Tears of joy fall from her eyes, in spite of her best efforts to check them, on his back. He then promises her to get her the Parijāta tree itself from Indra's garden. He mounts Garuda and sets out on his march against Indra. Now Satyabhāmā, although perfectly confident of Hari's valour, feels greatly worried. This speaks of her deep and abiding love for him.
Hari, in accordance with the rules of state-craft, sends first Satyaka (=Satyaki) his own charioteer (?) as an envoy to Indra. He advises Indra to accept Hari's hand of friendship and honour the Yadavas by gifting away the celestial Pārijāta tree. Indra, however, does not pay any heed to his advice. Then a fight takes place between the two. Hari forces ultimately Indra to surrender and wins the cherished Pärijāta tree from him. Hari, the victorious, returns home with the Pārijāta tree, Satyabhāmā's heart is captivated by the sweet fragrance of the Pārijāta flowers, yet her gaze first rests on Hari and only later on the Pārijāta tree. Hari plants the tree in the garden in front of Satyabhāmā's residence and thus succeeds in removing her sulky wrath. She infers from this gift that Hari's love for her is a thousand times more intense than for Rukmiņi whom he had given only a garland. Rukmiņī has every reason to be angry with Hari for his partiality towards her co-wife but when she meets him only joy and not anger pervades her heart.
It is this episode of Hari's conquest of (Indra and his) Pārijāta tree which accounts for the title Harivijaya of the present epic. The statement of the Dhvanikära that if in a story adopted from a well-known source, the poet is faced with situations conflicting with the intended aesthetic emotion (rasa), he should leave out situations, inventing in their place even imaginary ones, in conformity with the intended rasa ... ... ... as has been done by Sarvasena in Harivijaya, and Abhinavagupta's comment on it in his Locana indicate that the main story of the epic was something different and the conquest of the Pārijāta tree from Indra's custody formed only one - although important - episode in it. The available citations from HV do not throw any light on the principal story but from the references of Bhoja and Hemacandra we may conjecture that it was mainly descriptive and not narrative. As regards its extent, we might further hazard a guess