________________
15 THE HARI-VIJAYA OF SARVASENA
Anandavardhana and Bhoja quote from a number of Prakrit works, some of which are now lost. Harivijaya is one of them. In his Srågäraprakāśa (SP) Bhoja mentions in one breath three Prakrit mahākāvyas : Rāvana-vijaya (RV), Harivijaya (HV) and Setubandha (SB), composed in āśvāsakas in the skandhaka metre. Of these three works, SB is completely available but the other two appear to be completely lost. It is indeed a pity we have only one verse from RV preserved to us in the form of a quotation in SP. We are a little more fortunate to have at least twentytwo verses which we can definitely ascribe to HV on the strength of their contents and/or on the basis of clear references by Anandavardhana and Bhoja. There are many more verses in SP and quite a few in Sarasvatikanthäbharana (SK) which are in Māhāsāstri Prakrit and are composed in the skandhaka metre. As they are not found in SB, they may have been drawn from RV or HV, most probably from HV, the model of SB. In the present paper first we treat of such verses as can be ascribed to HV and then list the verses which are probably drawn from it.
The author of RV is unknown and we know next to nothing regarding his age. Pravarasena composed his SB in the first half of the fifth century A.D. Sarvasena composed, it is surmised, his HV about a hundred years earlier than SB. Eminent Sanskrit Alamkārikas, viz., Anandavardhana and Kuntaka speak appreciatively of Sarvasena's HV.3
In the course of his discussion and exposition of the salient features of a Mahākávya, Bhoja in his SP and following him, Hemacandra in his Käyyānuśäsana (KS) give us the following information about HV : 1. Kavi-prašamsā yathā Rāvaņa-vijaye
सअलं चेअणिबंधं दोहि पएहिं कलुस पसण्णं च ठिअं। जाणंति कईण कई सुद्ध-सहावेहि लोअणेहि व हिम॥ [सकलमेव निबन्धं द्वाभ्यां पदाभ्यां कलुषं प्रसन्नश्च स्थितम् ।
जानन्ति कवीनां कवयः शुद्ध-स्वभावाभ्यां लोचनाभ्यामिव हृदयम् ॥] 2. "Dandin mentions the Harivijaya in a mutilated verse at the beginning of his Avantisundari,
and refers to Sarvasena as a king, probably identical with Sarvasena, the founder of the younger branch of the Vākātakas. If so, the Harivijaya was composed in the first half of the fourth century A.D., about a hundred years earlier than the Setubandha."-Pravarasena's
Setubandha. Tr. by Handique, p. 50. 3. i) Anandavardhana observes in his Dhvanyaloka (III. 11-12, pp. 335-36):
इतिवृत्तवशायाता कथञ्चिद्रसाननुगुणां स्थितिं त्यक्त्वा पुनरुत्प्रेक्ष्याप्यन्तराभीष्टरसोचित-कथोन्नयो विधेयः-यथा कालिदासप्रबन्धेषु । यथा च सर्वसेनविरचिते हरिविजये ।
Abhinavagupta thus explains in his Locana (p. 335) : ...हरिविजये कान्तानुनयनाङ्गत्वेन पारिजातहरणादिनिरूपितमितिहासेम्वदृष्टमपि ।
