Setubandha

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

Page 72

INTRODUCTION Pravarasena's remarks on poetry are interesting, because similar observations are not usual in the Sanskrit Mahakavyas. Hemacandra quotes a verse in praise of the insight of poets from the Prakrit Rāvanavijayal but it is difficult to say whether it was usual to commence a Prakrit Mahakavya with similar observations on poetry.
The Setubandha contains a considerable number of verses of ethical import; but we miss in it the many pithy savings found in the Sanskrit Mahakāvvas, usually, at the end of a verse that are formally called arthantaranyasa. Likewise the absence of any reference to philosophical or other tenets relating to the different branches of learning is another feature that differentiates the poem from the Sanskrit Mahakavyas.
Among mythological allusions the clipping of the wings of the mountains by Indra is frequently mentioned?. There is a reference to the fight between Garuda and Indra for nectar (14.59) as related in the Mahābhārata.8 Pravarasena mentions several legends found in the Uttarakāņda of the Rāmāyaṇa, e.g., the victory of Rāvana over Yama (15.86)"; tbe boon of immortality granted to Vibhīşaņa (15.85); Rāvana's attempt to uproot the Kailāsa mountain (15,28.);
1 Kavyānusāsana, Vol. 1, p. 456. 2 Setu 5.37, 51; 7.53 etc. See Ramāyaṇa 5.1.108 ff. The wings were clipped because
the flying mountains were a terror to the world. Another version of the story is that once the mountains flew away, abandoning their task of supporting the earth. As a consequence, the earth wobbled, and the waters of the ocean inundated the city of the demons, whereupon their leader Hirapyākşa, scenting danger, declared war against the gods, but was killed by Vişnu incarnate as Nr-varäha. Subsequently the wings of the mountains were clipped by Indra as a punishment for their mis. demeanour. Vişnudlarmottarapurāna, Part 1, chap. 53. Pravarasena in Setu 4.46 seems to have this episode in mind when he compares the failure of an enterprise for lack of able supporters to the subsidence of the earth abandoned by the moun
tains (mahihara-mukka va mahi). The Purana has dharādharaparit yakră dharā. 3 See Adiparva (Astikaparva). Cf. Māgha 20-73. 4 Rāmāyana 7.21, 22; also 6,7:12, 13.