Setubandha

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 42

INTRODUCTION
underlying these tenets is reflected in Pravarasena's statement that Visnu is manifest, but the truth about him is unknown.
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Pravarasena compares the ocean to Visņu in Setu 2.15: it moves back and forth within itself, even as Vişņu comes and goes (in the form of incarnations) in the universe that is his self. As the Visnupurana says, he, the mighty one, is the seven worlds, and his form is composed of all the worlds (lokatmamurti). The idea of comparing the ocean to the god seems, however, to have come from Kalidasa, who in Raghuvamsa 13.5 describes the character of the ocean as indefinable like that of Visņu; and likens the various moods of the ocean to the different phases of Visnu's activity, i.e., creation, maintenance and destruction as explained in the Visnupurāṇa 1.2.57 ff.2.
The remaining verses in praise of Visņu (1.2-4) extol the Man-Lion and Kṛṣṇa incarnations; and of the latter's exploits the poet mentions only the killing of the Bull demon and the Parijata episode. Two other incarnations are mentioned, the Boar and the Dwarf, the former being more frequently mentioned than any other incarnation of Viṣṇu3.
The Dwarf incarnation is mentioned in Setu 2.9, and the Trivikrama aspect of it in 9.7, 51 and probably also in 9.91. In the latter verse the three worlds are described as lying round the Suvela mountain like the three bracelets encircling 'the massive and lofty arm of Hari'. The commentators Ramadasa and Madhavayajvan find here a reference Trivikrama. No such details, however, occur in the
to
1
I. 22.78, 79.
2 Kalidasa and the Visnupurana both use the word avastha: tām tāmavastham pratipadyamānam Raghu; brahmadyavasthabhiraseṣamurtiḥ VP I. 2.66.
3 Setu 4.22; 5.44; 6.2, 13; 7.2, 40; 8.54; 9.5, 29.