Book Title: Some Aspects of Indian Culture
Author(s): A S Gopani, Nagin J Shah, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Previous | Next

Page 121
________________ Some Aspects of Indian Culture Now let us see what Gunapala's Jambucariyam has to say on these points. Gupapala has reversed the order entirely. He has begun with Vidyunmält and goesd escribing the privious births of Bhavadatta-Bhavadeva, Devagati and SagaradattaŚivakumara. He has related Sagaradatta as getting emancipation and Sivakumara as being born as god, Vidyunmalı From these onwards, the narrative proper dealing with Jambu takes its start and it strikes a superior note as it is couched in interesting and erudite language and told in a style which is coherent and well-constituted. This puts it on a par with any highly rated Mabākavya. Gunapala's also has not been able to extricate himself from the compulsions of tradition as he also has referred in detail to the story of Prasannacandra Rajarşi in his Jarhbucariyam. He has so incorporated the stories of Sivakumara-Sagaradatta and BhavadevaBhavadatta that they easily become the integral part of the work and enhance as well as elucidate the motiff. The romantic of dialogue between Sivakumara and Kanakavati is sufficiently stimulating and is a special feature of Gupapala's Jambucariyam only. The basis and model of this episode seems to be the love story of Simhakumara and Kanakävati occurring in the second Bhava of Haribhadra's Samaraiccakaha. 112 The whole story in Gupapala's Jambucariyam is well presented that the sequence does not seem to be, even for a moment, illogical and out of place. This makes the reading pleasant and understanding easy. Bhavadeva is brought back to the right path by his abandoned wife, Nägila, as in Vasudevahindi. The narration of the previous births of all the eight wives of Jambu is not thought proper to be treated in this work a lso. No relationship between Sudharma and Jambu during their previous births is established in this work by Guņapāla also. No episodes, proving the heroic mattle and merits of the main character Jambu, have been introduced or invented in this work. From all the above observations, a legitimate conclusion can easily by drawn that Vira's Jambusamicariu was designed after the pattern of Gupapala's Jambucariyam which in ts turn took the form and colour from the two previous works, namely, Vasudevahindi and Uttarapuraṇa. Some alterations and innovations have no doubt been made by every one of the three authors in order to make a display, good or bad, of their power of imagination and depiction. The striking ability of both, Gupapala and Vira, becomes mainfest when they make every conscious effort to prevent the reader's interest from flagging. It has also been secured through co-ordinated presentation in both, Gunapala's Jambucariyamh no doubt suffers from an indiseriminate use of religious sermonising as also from his visible effort to attach a symbolic significance to every intervening story which generally becomes boring and thus defeats its own purpose. Guṇapala's mistake has become a lesson for Vira who has weeded out these unproductive elements from his work. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211