Treasury of Jain Tales

Author(s): V M Kulkarni
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 25

both of them are mixed in prose and verse. Bhoja and following him Hemacandra define khandakathā as follows: That in which an episode (or series of events) from a bigger story wellknown in or through another work, either from the middle or from near to the end, is described, is known as khandakathā (in other words, it is one episode from a very popular work retold separately or independently-) e.g., Indumati . This work, however, is not extant."
Abhinavagupta in his Locana defines it thus : Khandakathā is the narration or description of a part of the bigger story.au
Sridhara in his commentary on Kavyaprakāşa (p.121) identifies Vākpati's work in Prakrit, called Madhumatha-vijaya (now lost), as a Khandakathā.? From the title however it would seem that it was an epic poem like Rāvanavijaya and Harivijaya of Sarvasena. In one of his introductory verses to his Gaudavaho Vākpati refers to it thus:
महुमह- विअअ- पउत्ता वाआ कह णाम मउलउ इमम्मिा पढम-कुसुमाहि तलिणं पच्छाकुसुमं वणलआणं ।। 22
-V.69
9. Upakatha :
Bhoja and, following him, Hemacandra define upakatha as follows: "An upakathā is what is very wellknown by that name, a sub-story coming up in the middle of a main story". The upakathā thus resembles the upākhyāna. Bhoja cites Citralekhā as an example. It is not known whether Citralekhă is a separate
19. TerufHas Pififaquesta faqe: 1 मध्यादुपान्ततो वा सा खण्डकथा यथेन्दुमती ।।
-Srngāraprakās a XI,p.469. 20. Tatic graufal TuST
Dhv. Locana 1/1.7, p.324. 21. Kävyaprakās'a with Sridhara's commentary Viveka ed. by
S.P.Bhattacharya and pub. as Calcutta Sanskrit College
Research Series VIII, two parts, 1959,1961. 22. मधुमथविजयप्रयुक्ता वाक् कथं नाम मुकुलयत्वस्मिन् ।
प्रथमकुसुमात्तलिनं पश्चात्कुसुमं वनलतानाम् ।। - इति च्छाया