Sambodhi 1996 Vol 20

Author(s): Jitendra B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 66

CANDRALEKHĀVIJAYA PRAKARANA : A DISCOVERY OF AN ISLAND OF DRAMATIC EXCELLENCE
Vijay Pandya (Candralekhävijaya Prakarana has been edited and published by Śrī Pradyumnasüriji from a single inanuscript procured from the collection of Muniśrī Punyavijayji. The play is referred to in the manuscript-collection of Dr. Bühler and in the History of Classical Sanskrit literature by M. Krishnamachariar. But it sees the ray of daylight for the first time due to the untiring efforts put in by Sri Pradyumnasüriji. The copies of the play can be had from Dr. Harivallabh Bhayani, 25/2, Bimanagar, Satellite Road, Ahmedabad-380015, Gujarat, INDIA).
Hemacandrācārya, a multi-splendoured personality of the medieval Gujarat and India gave rise to the multifarious literary activities of the 12th Century Gujarat, with the help of his band of devoted illustrious disciples. Among them was Devacandragani, who is the author of this play Candralekhā, a Prakaraṇa type of drama. Sri Pradyumnasūriji, by diligently editing this play with perceptive introduction for the first time lias brought to light a remarkable play of the medieval Gujarat and laid us, the lovers of Sanskrit language and literature, under eternal obligation. It has taken Śrī Pradyumnasuriji almost a decade to edit the play from a manuscript procured from the collection of Munisri Punyavijayji. It was a difficult task and the editor has most admirably accomplished it. The plot is complex and full of supernatural elements reflecting the times during which the play was written. The storyline may be briefly indicated here actwise : Vijaya (strangely from the legend of the third act he is called Vijayendra, giving rise to an impression that there are two different persons, but that is not the case) who is a hero of the play had acquired religious merit, the fruit of which he could not enjoy in the previous birth due to shorter span of life and hence this birth. His beloved Candralekhā, of semidivine origin had committed an error while performing a dance before Vikramasena, the king of Vidyadharas, and she was divested of her miraculous power and turned into a female swan in a Kāmarasa lake by her enemy Ahitātnā. In this birth Vijaya is to meet his beloved-turned into a female swan. There are various other persons like