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Introduction
13
Besides having the mnemonic and order-preserving functions, this type of device ensured the authorship of stray verses, which otherwise had the fate of becoming anonymous (as is the case with hundreds of anthology verses). This device of recording and preserving indentity of the author of several single verses by means of word-tokens must have been wide-spread. It is only Tg. which provides us for the first time early and substantial evidence.
The index verses composed by Sankuka show his reverence, boundless admiration and perceptive apprecration with respect to Bappabha!ti and his poetry. They also reveal his admirable. literary skill in writing ornate Prakrit verse.
(f Subject-m inter It will be seen from the table of contents that the topics o Bappabhatti's verses compiled in Tg. are Mangala, Poet, Good and Wicked Persons, Rains (Lightning, Cloud, Sky), Lamp, Rājacātu, Anurāga, Supuruşa, Breasts. Lotus Plant, Asati and Miscellaneous. The number of verses devoted to Love (35) and to Praise of the Patron-king (24) top the list of the total number of verses given topicwise. These are among the usual topics of Muktakas we find collected in various Prakrit and Sanskrit anthologies. Originality of the poet lay in the mode of treatment of the common topics.
One particular verse of Bappabhatti, viz. v. 173 can shown to be based on an episode occurring in a well-known Jain narrative. The verse alludes to the reprehensible behaviour of an unchaste woman, who perfidiously hands over to the police her husband as the thief and passes off the thief as her husband This incident occurs in the story of Nūpurapandita which is familiar to us from Jinadāsagani's Avašyaka-Cūrņi Jayasimha
6. तीए भणितो-तुम मम पती होहि. एत साहामो जहा चोगे त्ति । तेहिं पभाते मिठो गहितो एयाए उवटिट्ठो त्ति । विवदंतो सूले भिण्णो ।
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