Sadyavatsa Kathanakam

Author(s): Pritam Singhvi
Publisher: Parshwa International Shaikshanik aur Shodhnishth Pratishthan

Page 107

हर्षवर्धन-गणि-कृतं सदयवत्स-कथानकम्
as the one we are considering here then the date of the earliest literary composition about the adventures of Suddaya can be shifted back by a century. The reference concerns the great Apabhramsa poet Svayambhudeva, the author of the epics Paumacariya and the Ritthaņemicariya. In the latter work, we find the following verse, which expresses exhaustion on the part of the poet after continuous life-long literary activity!?. kāāņa Pomacariyam Suddhayacariyam ca guna-gan'azghaviyam Harivamsa-moha-haraṇe Sarassai sudhiya-deha-vva
The poet here says that after having composed the Paumacariya and the Suddayacariya full of literary merits, his Sarasvati (literary powers) seems to have become exhausted in the present task of clearing delusions regarding the Harivaṁsa narrative!). Here it is quite likely that Svayambhu's Suddayacariya was a poem dealing with the tale of Suddayavira. Of course we cannot be definite about this as Pk. Ap. Suddaya stands also for Sk. Sadraka and we have references to several Sadraka-kathas composed in Prakrit and Apabhraṁsa!.
But is should be noted that Svayambhū has composed works on Rāmāyana and Mahābhārata and his third work Suddayacariya might have handled the popular tale of Suddaya. We have already taken note of two Apabhramśa poets, Nayanandin and Abdala Rahamana, talking about the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and the Suddaya tale in the same breath.
• 14. The sources and precedents of the Sudravatsa tale remain to be investigated. We may point out here some significant parallels to a few of its episodes and motifs. The episode of a courtesan demanding fee from a merchant's son for dream enjoyment occurs in the Punyavanta-jātaka which is given in the Mahāvastu (ed. Senart, 1897, third part, p. 33-41). That story occurs elsewhere also in Buddhist and later non-Buddhist literatures. In the Jātaka version the courtesan's claim is more plausible in that