________________
BHARATA - BĀHUBALI - MAHĀKĀVYA : A CRITIQUE
Satyavrat Notable for its myriad virtues and faithful adherence to the Mahākāyya – tradition, as fostered by masters like Kālidāsa and Māgha, the Bharatabāhubali - mahākāvya (BBM) has the unenviable distinction of surviving a series of disasters that it encountered in its chequered history. A full-fledged manuscript of the BBM alongwith its Pañjikā was preserved with the Terāpantha sect, at one point of time. Following the misappropriation of the text by a monk as he opted out of the order, the copy of the poem, now left with the sect, ceases in the midst of canto Eleven. The loss of the Third canto besides a part of the second, combined to reduce the poem to a sketchy text, its usefulness in reviving the Kavya notwithstanding. A defective codex of the BBM is deposited with the Vijayadharma Jñānamandira, Agra. Its text is highly corrupt and, therefore unintelligible for the most. The credit for salvaging the BBM must rest with Muni Nathmal (now Ācārya Mahāprañja), the mighty scholar and philosopher of the day, who recreated the poem in V.S. 2002 on the basis of the two transcripts of the Agra MS. and the incomplete copy preserved with the sect itself. The plethora of the lacuna that tarnished the poem were brilliantly plugged by him subsequently in V. S. 2009 at Lūņakarnasar (Bikaner)'. As no scientific measures were taken to distinguish his insertions from the original, the two have tended to melt into an integrated text. However, the text as reconstituted by the Ācārya has been instrumental in saving the BBM from disintegration and possible loss.
The Colophon to the BBM does not contain any hint to its author, nor is his name mentioned elsewhere in the body of the poem. The name of the poet, as it seems to be suggested by the phrase punyodaya skilfully interwoven in the concluding verse of each canto?, and vouchsafed by the Colophon to the Pañjikā, is Punyakusala. It also provides the additional information that Punyakušalagani was the pupil of Pandita Somakusalagani and the grand-pupil of Vijayasenasūri, the celebrated pontiff of the Tapāgaccha. It was during the pontiff-ship of Vijayasenasūri (V. S. 1652-1659 = 1595-1602 A. D.) that the BBM was composed?. Kanakakusalagani was a fellow student of Punyakušala. His works are known to have been written from V.S. 1641 (1584 A. D.) to V.S. 1667 (1610 A. D.)". The Agra transcript of the poem, dated in V.S. 1659 (1602 A. D.), forms the lowest limit of the composition of the BBM and serves to lend
