Ratna karavatarikadya sloka satarthi

Author(s): Jinmanikyavijay, Bechardas Doshi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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clearly points to the fact that the author was a good student of the Siddhahemacandravyākarana as also of the Uņādiprakaraṇa.
The Author as a Poet: It is said tbat the creation of a literary piece impregnated with a variety of meanings demands talent and genius. Kāvyas of this type are not rare in Sanskrit. Only those who love labour for its own sake and are gifted with talent and power of imagina. tion can produce them. Jinaniāņikya is one of them. For the composition of this type of poems a good grounding in grammar and lexicons (especially ekākşar1 lexicons) is needed. Our author is a master of Sanskrit grammar and his stock of Sapskrit words is marvellous. This has helped him to bring out more than a hundred meanings from one single verse. The verse 'siddhaye vardhamāna...' may well be compared to a coconut fruit the sweet water of which can be obtained only after having removed, with great effort, the hard covering. As soon as ope analyses each and every letter of a verse the fountain of colourful meanings rises up; and those who understand enjoy them. In the course of this kind of poetic composition the author has to take recourse to the rare usages sanctioned by Grammar, to accept the proximity or otherwise of the letters and words where it normally does not exist, to read anusvāra etc. where they are not present and vice versa, to take for granted the identity of d and l, ofr and I, of ś and s, of 'n and ņ, of b and v. A11 these oddities are, of course, there in the Satārthi but they are poetical conventions made use of by the poets like Bhāravi ', Māgha 4, Harsa, 5 etc. It is a matter of great satisfaction that Jinamāņikya, following in the foot-steps of the former great poets, has shown his genius and power of imagination in the compositon of the Satārthi. There are many other works of this type from the pen of Jaina nionks. Prof. H. R. Kapadia has given the list of these works in his introduction to the edition of Anekārtharatnamañjūşā.
The Satārthi as a Citrakāvya : The fifth chapter of Hemacandra's Kāvyänuśāsana is dedicated to the treatment of śabdalankāras. Therein he has enumerated six śabdalankāras. Among them the mention is made of one śabdalankāra called citra. This citra-alankāra is, according to Hemacandra, of various types such as svaraniyama, vyañjana-niyama, sthāna-niyama, gati-niyama, akāra-niyama, cyūta, gūdha, etc. Āc. Hemacandra has defined and illustrated each one of them. The Satārthi can well be brought under the type güdha-kävya. The poem the meaning of which is terse and concealed is a gūdha-kavya. Or, the poem in which the subject, the predicate and the verb are pot discernible is also called gūdha-kävya. If we direct our 3. See Kirātārjuniyam, XV. 18 4. See śiśupālavadha, XIX, 3 5. See Naisadhiyacarita, XIII. 22-23