________________
An attempt to trace the Source
the similarities and just from the fact that the two works are similar in many places, have conclude that Vidibhasimha works are the source books for the Cc. But how far is such a conclusion appropriate ?
25
Though the Cc. employs many Sanskrit traditions in the narration of the Jiyaka. episode, it owes a great debt to the Cankam literature, and to a certain extent to the Cilappatikaram and the other Patinenkilkanakku-(eighteen minor works) works, written before it in the ideas, the phrases, the similes etc. Similarly Vädibhasimha follows the style of Bana in his Gc. In many places while describing the same incidents and descriptions, Tévar follows the early Tamil literary works and Vadibhasimha follows the style of the Kadambari and the Harṣacarita For example the following lines which describe the city Hemangada in the Gc. contain ideas which are in descriptions found in the Kadambari and the Harşacarita.
dhyanapara-yamadaradhyusita-vedikopaŝobhitalokapadopaccha va-langhana-cakita
parahitaniratamunivaraparişad-abhihita
bhavyaloka-vakritupradakṣinabhramaṇaiḥ, dharmanukathenakarmatha-sukakulavacalodyan sakhisakhaparişkṛtaparisaraiḥ..
([The country of Hemängada shone by the Jaina devotees who go round the Ajoka trees, because of the fear of crossing2 the shadow of these trees, which are beautified by the stages on which the ascetics who do penance dwell, and by the territories surrounded by flower gardens which are full of branches on which are perched the noisy parrots which have the talent of repeating the virtuous discourses which are uttered by the group of ascetics who do good to others)
In the Harsacarita, while de-cribing the river Ganges, following which Sarasvati descended to the earth by the curse ef Durvasa, it is stated that on its shores, Vidyadharas ran away in fear that they should not cross the phallic images of Šiva made of sand for worship by the Siddhas. In the Kadambari, the description of the hermitage of the ascetic Jabali in the Dandaka forest contains the statement that the parrots there repeat the 'vasatkara' sound. What is stated with reference to the idols of Śiva in the Harṣacarita has been taken over to the case of the Aśoka trees in the Ge. as it is a Jaina text. The entire description of the country of Hemangada in the Gc. has the strong iufluence of the description of Ujjayini in the Kadambari Hemangada country is described in the Cc. and one sees clearly the style. of the Cankam works here.
Several places where the descriptions in the Cc. proceed on the lines of Tamil traditions are not found in the Gc. Instances for this are the descriptions of the five
1 Gc, 1: para 1, p. 9.
2 To cross over or tread upon a sacred object is sinful.
3
siddhaviracita valukalingalan ghanatrasavidrutavidyadharam'
Bana, Harṣacarita, edictd by P. V. Kane, 2nd edition, Delhi, 1965, Ist chapter, p. 8.
4 'Vașat is an exclamation pronounced when offering oblations to the sacred fire.
5 'anavaratairavauagṛhītavaṣaṇkaravacalašukulñm', Bana, Kadambari, edited by M, R. Kale, 4th edition, Bombay, 1968, 1st chapter, p. 70.
SC-4
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