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66
STUDIES IN JAIN LITERATURE
both. Some of them wrote in both. The norms laid down in their works were equally applicable to both and, indeed, till recently to literatures even in our modern languages.
Occasionally, we find similarities of ideas among great poets. For example, Kālidāsa in his Kumarasambhava, VIII. 7 describes the timid shyness of the new-made bride, Parvati :
शूलिनः करतलद्वयेन सा संनिरुध्य नयने हृतांशुका ।
तस्य पश्यति ललाटलोचने मोघयत्नविधुरा रहस्यभूत् ॥ Hāla has the following gātha in his Gāthāsaptaśati (V.55) which deserves comparison with the above stanza.
रडकेलिहिअणिअंसणकरकिसलअरुद्धणअणजुअलस्स। रुद्दस्स तइअणअणं पव्वइपरिउंबिअं जअइ ।। [रतिकेलिहतनिवसनकरकिसलयरुद्धनयनयुगलस्य।
रुद्रस्य तृतीयनयनं पार्वतीपरिचुम्बितं जयति ॥ ] Translation : Victorious, i.e, very fortunate is the third eye of Rudra (i.e., Śiva) which was sealed/shut with a kiss by Pārvatī, while the pair of his normal eyes were covered by her with her sproutlike (tender) hands, when her garment/ clothing was stripped off by him (Rudra=Siva) in the course of amorous dalliance.
It would seem that the poet of the gāthā knew Kālidāsa’s verse since he has improved upon him.
Such stray similarities apart, Govardhana's Aryāsaptaśati deliberately attempts to imitate Hāla's Gathāsaptaśati. Jayadeva, who claims to be the chief of the kings of poets (Kavirājarāja), is believed to have been profoundly influenced in the use of rime (= rhyme) by Apabhramśa poems in which its use is regular. With these introductory remarks, we take up the topic of VālmikiRāmāyana and Jain Rāmāyaṇas : Study in Interaction.
No other work of Indian literature has enjoyed a greater popularity in India down to the present day than the Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki. The story of Rāma occurs in the Mahābhārata and a number of Purāņas. We have, further, the Adbhuta-Rāmāyaṇa Adhyātma-Rāmāyana and Ananda-Rāmāyana. Many eminent poets including Bhāsa, Kālidāsa, Bhavabhūti and Rajasekhara have again and again drawn upon this great epic and worked them up anew in their poems and plays.
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