Sambodhi 1998 Vol 21

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

Page 71

SATYAVRAT
SAMBODHI
In imitation of Māgha, Punyakuśala has described the six traditional seasons that come to wait upon the hero. The entire description in Māgha is infested with fearsome Yamaka; Punyakusala has resorted to the gimmick in describing the Śarat alone. Otherwise also the Yamaka in the BBM. does not pose insuperable difficulty. As indicated earlier, the encounter of the rival armies described in the BBM. is not traceable to its major sources. It has unmistakably been suggested and inspired by the terrific battle between the armies of Krsna and Siśupāla in Māgha's poem. Cantos fourteen and fifteen are imbued with an aura of the traditional Caritakāvyas. Therein are encountered the banal motifs associated with such poems. Māgha is lost in the labyrinth of Citrakavya while describing the battle. Punyakuśala has spun out a brilliant sketch of the encounter, and has thereby sought to present an opposite pole to Māgha's tour de force. Bharata's duel with Bāhubalī, though based on the TSSpc. seems to have drawn sustenance from the combats detailed in the Kirātārjuniyam and the Śiśupālavadham, as well.
The description of the impatience of the women-folk in canto six owes itself to the corresponding description in Māgha (Canto 13) where the city damsels likewise throng to have a glimpse of Krsna as he enters Yudhisthira's metropolis. He might have drawn upon Kālidāsa's parallel descriptions also which seems to have set the norm in this respect. With war as the focal point, the śiśupālavadham and the BBM have Virarasa as their dominant sentiment, but Śộngāra has been depicted with such a zeal that it tends to overwhelm the angirasa. The śiśupālavadham closes at its natural end
- the assassination of siśupāla in the BBM. the war undergoes sublimation. Despite the heavy indebtedness to Māgha, Punyakušala has no fascination for his pedantic language, ponderous style excessive ornamentation and the despicable citrakāvya13
RASA
The BBM is one of the few Jainistic writings that are not overtly intended to subserve the sectarian objectives. That is why its pedagogic or didactic overtones are not much pronounced. Punyakusala is well-equipped in delineating the spate of feelings that criss-cross the human breast in differing situations and under various stresses and strains, with the result that a number of rasas find powerful expression in the poem. The sentiments depicted in the BBM. are marked by