Setubandha

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

Page 70

INTRODUCTION
57 been the best known; and, as noted above, there are a few references to it in Sanskrit works on poetics. But nothing seems to be known about the extent and structure of the poem. Hemacandra refers to it in connection with the varoius descriptions found in the different Mahākāvyas, and mentions several topics described in Sarvasena's work; but he criticizes the author for inserting in his poem an irrelevant description of the ocean, "a superfluous excrescence,' as he calls it.2 The subject of the poem is the forcible removal of the Parijāta tree from heaven by Kệşņa. Anandavardhana praises Sarvasena for introducing an element of rasa into the insipid mythological theme by representing Krşņa's action as motivated by a desire to appease his wife Satyabhāmā%. But, in the absence of the text, it is difficult to determine how far Krşņa's action in going to war with Indra for the purpose of placating his wife's jealousy lent dignity to the subject, or contributed to the success of the poem as a work of art. Sarvasena is also praised by Kuntaka for following the Sukumaramarga corresponding to the old Vaidarbhi style ; but to judge from Hemacaudra's criticism, it may be doubted if the Harivijaya was a mature effort in the field of the Mahakavya, comparable to the Setubandha. In any case it failed to maintain its popularity as a major work of the early kävya literature.
At the beginning of the Setubandha just after the invocatory verses, Pravarasena recounts the advantages to be derived from
1 Kāvyānu'sāsana, Vol. 1, p. 458. 2 See section on metres. 3 Dhvanyaloka (NS), p. 148. The Locana says affaget Frargatakwaa arftara
gut faafqafafarÈT 22Hf. See also Vaidya's Introd. to Rāmāyaṇa, Yuddha
kānda, p. XXXV. + एवं सहजसौकुमार्य सुभगानि कालिदाससर्वसेनादीनां काव्यानि दृश्यन्ते, तत्र सुकुमारमार्गस्वरूप
a r Vakroktijavita, p. 71. Ed. De. Calcutta, 1961,