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PRAKRIT POETRY AND SANSKRIT POETICS
V. M. Kulkarni
(1) Poetry in Mabarastri Prakrit :
Prakrit literature is vast and varied. It is composed in different languages like Ardhamāgadhi, Māhārāşļri, Jain Mabärāştri, Saurasent, Jain Sauraseni, Paiśāci and Apabhramsa. I confine myself to poetry in Mahārāştri Prakrit. for, writers on Sanskrit pogtics mostly draw upon poetic works in Māhārāştri, for their illustrations. The principal works in this Prakrit are :
(1) Hāla’s Sattayai or Sapraśatakam or Gahäkoso or better known as Gatha saptasati (GS) (c. first century A. D., according to some scholars second or third century A. D.) is the earliest known anthology of Prakrit to be precise, of Mahärāştri, verses comprising some seven bundred g.11häs. It is the most famous and best known of Māhārāștri works. Its value as an anthology is high and it also affords evidence to show that Mahārāștri literature was once very extensive and widespread.2 Its popularity is attested by the large number of commentaries on it and scores of quotations from it in works on poetics and the use of it made by the Prakrit gram tiarjans. Eminent poets like Baņa, Uddyotanasūri, Abhinanda and Soddhala bestow high praise on it. And if imitation is an index of popularity we have its imitation in Sanskrit in Govardhana's Aryäsaptaśat.i which is certainly modelled on Hala's Gotha saptaśail.
The work is divided, as is clear from the title, into seven satakas, centuries, collections of hundred gathās each, which however differ very much in various MSS preserved to us. This anthology is mostly of erotic contents. Each gaiha presents a mioiature picture complete in itself. These gäthäs mainly depict village life and the peasantry. The fainily life of the lower strata of the society is portrayed in its various contexts, but the erotic aspect dominates. These găthas are not specimens of ancient songs of the Indians dealing with the joys and sorcows of their lives but only artistic poems closely modelled on them. Next to the gathas portraying love in its various aspects we have picturcs of nature. We also get a few glimpses of the town and court life as some of the gathas are composed by kings and their court poets. The anthology is rich in maxims and Popular sayings and sheds light co the customs and conventions prevalent in those times. There are allusiops to deities like Siva Pārvall, Gauri,
Sambodbi-X-19
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