Sambodhi 1978 Vol 07

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 83

Plot-construction of the Kadambari
sudden demise. In this mundane world Vaiśampāyana is born as a parrot and passes through many travails. Candrāpīda is born as the king Sudraka, It is worth noting that the author has not given the detailed account of Sudraka's life and his upbringing. It was very thoughtful on the part of the author to have chosen to dwell upon the life of the parrot as the royal life's account would be repetitous in view of the later lengthy account of Candrāpīda. Both the friends meet. Śūdraka leaves his this body and there Candrāpīda comes to life. The parrot also shakes off its body and comes to Puņdarīka from the blue heavens ! It's all so charmingly intriguing. In the light of this discussion we well understand how the criticism, “This description of the parrot's birth-place Ujjayini and the details of Chandrāpida's birth and education etc. are dealt with in unnecessary details” by Mrs. Neeta Sharma2o, has miserably failed to grasp the d:sign of the plot-co. nstruction. In one sweep Mrs. Neeta Sharma has dismissed these events which Bāņa has very meticulously built up. The parrot's birth, its growing up etc. have to be described in details in order to show some lapse of time and enable the parrot and sudraka to come face to face. The same motive is discernible in the case of Candrāpida whose upbringing has been described in some details so as to allow river of time to flow.
Thus foregone scrutinisation would indicate that much fore-thought and pre-planning have gone into the making of the plot of Kādambarī. This feat deserves the highest kind of approbation in view of the work having dual authorship and a big bulk. This is no mean achievement and it has been achieved with impeccable artistic design. W.H. Hudson, the doyen of the English critics lays down the following requisites of the plot-construction "We demand that the story shall its own particularly way to be good one and also that it shall be skillfully put together. By this we mean that on careful examination of all its details it shall reveal no gaps or inconsistancies, that its incidents shall appear to spontaneiously envolve from its date and from one another, that com.nonplace things shall be made significant by the writer's touch upon them, that the march of events however unusual shall be so managed as to impress us orderly and natural in the circumst. ances and that the catastrophe whether foreseen or not shall satisfy us as the logical product and summing up of all that has gone before.21 The foregoing analysis is vindication of this somewhat long quotation by W.H. Hudson laying down the essentials of the plot-construction. Sambodhi 7.1-4,