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Tārāyana
verses having a reference to the King's personal life, a misunderstanding was created between him and Bappabhatti. The latter left Kānyakul ja and went to Laksaņāvati in the Gauda country, where its king Dharma welcomed him at the instance of his court-poet Vâkpatirāja. After some time Bappabhatti returned to Kanyakubja, because Āma went to L:.kșanävati to request him to return. Thereafter numerous cpisodes evidencing Bappabhatti's literary feats are narrated. The episodes of the defeat of the Buddhist Vardhanakuñjara, and various incidents in the later life and literary activity of the poet Vākpatirāja (including his supposed conversion to Jainism and his death) are described at length. The account also gives the incidents connected with the Birudas like vādi-kunjara-kesarin, gajarara, brahmacārin etc. acquired by Bappa bhatti. There is a description of Āma's pilgrimage to Jain holy places in company with Bappabhatti. In several critical situations Bappabhalti helped the king by giving vital information or making crucial prediction for which he consulted the Prośnacintamani, a work on prognostication. V.S. 800 and 895 are given as the respective years of Bappabhatti's birth and death.
As an hagiographical account this traditional Jain biography of Bappa bhatti is likely to have some Jain bias, besides exaggerations and errors that were inevitable during the period of oral transmission. But the view expressed by some scholars that it has little historical worth is unjustified. For example, Pandit's remarks that Jain sources cannoi be relied upon and that the whole story of the life of Bappabhatti is little better than a fabrication' are very strong and unfair. Most of such traditional accounts have been always legendary and motivated, the Jain accounts being no exception. Even then it cannot be denied that the traditional account of Bappabhatti preserves many facts and incidents that are historically reliable. The BK. and BC. accounts are considerably elaborāte, detailed and remarkably realistic in treatment, and it would be too much to allege that most of these facts and incidents were just fabrications. The discovery of Tg. bears out the Jain account on the points of Bappabhatti's poetic powers,
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