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Prakrit Verses in Sanskrit Works on Poetics
that it contained as many Ăśvāsakas as are found in Setubandha which is modelled on it.
From the citations we find that Harivijaya was composed in a graceful style. Its language and style are, as compared to Setubandha, more easy and less involved.
Like Pravarasena Sarvasena too shows the use of long compounds and figures of speech. Kuntaka's praise for graceful style and Dhvanikara's compliment for imaginative handling of the Pārijāta episode and Bhoja's appreciation of his work (by profusely quoting from it) Sarvasena very well deserves all of them.
(d) Pravarasena's Setubandha also known as Rāvanavaho, (C. first half of the 5th century A.D.): This work is completely available with Sanskrit commentaries Setutattvacandrika (Anonymous, ed. Basak, Calcutta, 1959) and Rāmasetupradīpa (of Rāmadāsa, NS edn, Bombay 1935). There are eight more commentaries which are still unpublished. Some of them are incomplete and fragmentary. The Setubandha deals with a portion of the story of Rāma from the return of Hanumat from Lankā with the whereabouts of Sītā to the death of Rāvaņa, with special emphasis on the construction of the great causeway between the mainland and the island. It follows the story of Rāma as related in the Rāmāyana with only a few minor variations. The designations of the different cantos of the Setubandha listed below from the commentary of Rāmadāsa give an adequate idea of its contents :
1 Rama-prasthanam (Rāma's March) 2 Samudrotkarşah (The Glory of the Ocean) 3. Sugrīva-praudhih (Sugriva's war-like speech and boastful claims of his own powers) 4 Rama-sadgunyam (Rāma's application of the six political expedients-Consecrating Vībhişaņa as the future ruler of Lankā) 5 Samudra-quathaḥ (The boiling rage of the Ocean) 6 Parvatoddhārah (The uprooting of mountains) 7 Setorudyogah (Active preparation for the construction of causeway) 8 Setu-nispattiḥ (The successful building of the causeway) 9 Suvelotkarşaḥ (The glory
31) Rāvanavaho oder Setubandha Prakrit and deutseh herausgegeben von Siegfried
Goldschimidt I. Lieferung : Text, Index. Strassburg, 1880; Second edition, with Rāmadāsa's commentary, Nirnaya Sagar Press, Bombay, 1935; Pravarasena Rāvanavaha-Mahākāvyam edited by Dr. Radhagovinda Basak, Sanskrit College, Calcutta, 1959; Pravarasena's Setubandha, Translated by K. K. Handiqui, Prakrit Text Society, L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad-9.
