Setubandha

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

Page 45

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INTRODUCTION
tion, however, does not take place; and Pravarasena fills the gap with the elaborate discourses of Sugrīva and Jāmbavat in his poem. But in doing so he draws materials from a similar episode in the Kişkindbākānda (Cantos 63, 64). Here the Vanaras who had gone south in search of Sītā are seized with fear on seeing the ocean. They are dumbfounded, and lo: k on in amazement; while their leader Angada, like Sugrīva in our poem, inveighs against despondency, and tries to restore their confidence by exalting their might and distinguished lineage. Jambavat is with them; and, as in our poem, reminds his companions of his great age by mentioning events witnessed by him in primordial times just to prove that age brings wisdom. Further, in the Rāmāyaṇa episode, when Angada offers to fly over to Lankā, Jāmbavat objects on the grouud that the master whose function is to commission others must not be commissioned to do any job?. Similar views on the relationship of a commander and his followers are found in Jāmbavat's discourse in the Setubandha 4,33,34.
. In the Rāmāyaṇa the suggestion that Rama should supplicate the Ocean to facilitate the crossing is made by Vibhīşaņa (6.13.13); in the Setubandha it comes from Jāmbavat (4.48). The obstinacy of the Ocean leads to his chastis ment by Rāma with his fiery arrows. The Rāmāyaṇa narrative here is brief and restrained, and comparable to one of the most beautiful episodes in the Iliad (21.342 ff.), the fight between the river god and Hephaestus, the god of fire. The Rāmāyaṇa speaks of the waves enveloped in smoke, and the billows towering up like the Vindbya and Mandara
vahantāna
1 vyapadesyakule jātā) Rāmāyaṇa 4.63.22. Cf. kula-vavaesa-kkhamam
jasam Setu 3,26. 2 4.64. 22. 3 See the critical edition.