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(VI)
Pravarasena as a poet,
The Setubandha is one of the few Mahakāvyas that may be said to have a central thought behind the events described in the narrative. Underlying its main topic, the building of the great causeway, is the idea of the supreme value of right method and its application, without which neither united effort nor even superhuman energy is adequate for success in a prodigious enterprise'. Except for a solitary
Pravarasena nowhere gives a clear expression to this idea, but it slowly emerges from his description of the under. taking. He is a poet who inculcates an idea without appearing to do so; and there is no doubt that he invests the mytho. logical theme with a human interest of great value.
Pravarasena has occasion to speak a good deal about the manly virtues; and gives his ideas of the able, the valiant and
the good in impressive verses. The able (samattha), for instan make even a failing enterprise thrive with a success unattainable by others, even as the Sun drives his tottering one-wheeled chariot through the sky (3.14). The unremitting zeal of valiant warriors is heightened when thwarted by obstacles, even as the everflowing water of great rivers surges up when obstructed in its course (3.17). Pravarasena frequently uses the word sappurisa or suurisa to indicate different types of good men such as the few who accomplish a work silently (3.9); persons who cannot be induced to retrace their steps without having achieved their task (3.24); and those who achieve a task, however arduous, by maintaining their fortitude, even as the rays of the sun scorch the universe by adhering to the solar orb (3.39). The term is also applied to those who take the lead in the
1
See section IV, p. 35
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