Setubandha

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

Page 83

70
INTRODUCTION
sense of shame, honour1. Broadly speaking, Pravarasena here gives weighty expression to some fundamental ideas underlying the old Indian code of honour.
We are told in Setu 13.35 that the warriors maintained their valour with manly effort, and their chayā by striking hard. Chāyā lustre seems to mean here prestige as in Gāthāsaptaśatī 1,384. The word appears to have the same meaning in Setu 3.18 where Sugrīva speaks of one's prestige built up with a sense of pride, and maintained from one generation to another.
A desire for ever increasing fame and the hope of glory after death impel the warrior to valiant efforts (13. 35, 44, 47); and gratitude for the master's kindness also serves as an in. spiration (12. 66; 13. 16). Ingratitude is hateful, and strongly condemned in Sugrīva's address to his followers : 'when a person desists from daring deeds, it is surely because he wants to preserve his dear life. But whoso fails to repay a kindness is counted in the world as dead even while alive.' (3.12)
Sita's lament at the sight of the severed head of Rāma (11.75ff.) reveals another aspect of Pravarasena's genius. 'Her
1 See Jones op. cit. sub voce. Aeschylus uses the word in the latter sense in his
portrayal of a Theban champion as one who reveres the throne of Honour : ton
Aischunës thronon timonta The Seven Against Thebes 409-10 2 NS ed. 1889. In the verse in question the wife of a poor man proud of his high
birth is annoyed when her relatives bring her pecuniary help, because she wants to maintain the prestige (chāhī=chāyā) of her husband. Cf. Samarāiccakahā, p. 442 : अत्यो नाम महन्तं देवयारूवं । एसो खु पुरिसस्स बहुमाणं वद्धावेइ, गोरवं जणेइ, AIETI E, B19(AITES etc
In a story in the Kuvalayamala (sec. 102, p. 52) Manabhata offends his youngwife by declaring in a song his longing for another girl in a village festival, Taunted and pitied by the village belles, she sadly thinks that he did not care about her prestige even in the preserce of her companions (na cchāyā-rakkhanam kayam.) Pravarasena has chaā...rakkhijjaz. The expression chāyābhamga likewise used to denote loss of prestige', 'dishonour', disgrace'. See Bhavisayattakahā of Dhanapāla 10.7,12, pp. 72,74 (Gune's edition, GOS. 1923).