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A PHĀGU-POEM IN THE SIMHASANBATRĪSĪ ( 1560 A. D. ).
AN OLD GUJARĀTĪ STORY - BOOK BY SIDDHISŪRI
By Dr. Bhogila] J. Sandesara, M. A., Ph. D. Professor and Head of the Department of Gujarati, M. S. University of Baroda.
Phagu is a form of literature in Old Gujarati (old Western Rajasthani) describing the erotic joys of spring. I had re-edited in the Journal of the Oriental Institute, Vol. II, No. 3 (March 1953) two Phagu-poems in early Gujarati, viz. the Sthūlibhadra Phagu (circa 1334 A. D.) of Jinpadmasuri and Neminath Phagu (circa 1349 A.D.) of Rajasekharasūri, as these two were prescribed by the M. S. University of Baroda for the B. A. (Special) examination in Gujarati for the year 1954 and 1955. I also added there short introductory remark for the students.
The literary form of Phagu has a long and varied history in Gujarati literature, and a large number of Phagus are available from the earlier times right upto the beginning of the 19th century A. D. The Prachin Phagu-Samgraha, Vol. III of the series of Old Gujarati texts (Prachin Gurjar Granthamala) published by the Gujarati Department of the M. S. University of Baroda which was out in June 1955, contains 38 Phagus composed from the 13th to the 17th century A. D. The Introduction to this work gives an account of the individual poems and their authors, and a historical study of the evolution of the Phagu-form on the basis of the available specimens.
The Phagu-poem that is presented here could not be included in the Prachin Phagu-Samgraha, because the manuscript from which it is available was acquired after the whole volume was printed. It is hoped that its publicattion here will be useful to the students.
My friend Shri Ranjit M. Patel, M. A., was working under my guidance on the problem of the story-cycles of Simhasana- batrisi for his Ph. D. We had acquired for him a large number of old mss. In
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