Two Prakrit Versions of Manipati Charitra

Author(s): R Williams
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

Page 27

14 TWO PRAKRIT VERSIONS OF THE MAŅIPATI-CARITA Compare with these lines MPCH 457-460, and note how the same terms recur: māhesara, sandattana, danda-haya, visitthasannā. Even the word go-vagga belongs also to the MPCJ.
Such verbal coincidences are by no means rare; they occur repeatedly throughout the two works. And they are more than verbal. Where the MPCH narrative diverges from that of the MPC it almost always agrees with Jambunāga's work. Thus for example in the tale of Cārabhațī the child which in the Āvaśyaka versions and in the MPC is killed by the snake remains unharmed in the MPCJ and MPCH. Again, in the story of the distressed lion the tenant of the cave in the MPC is a wolf but in the MPCJ and MPCH a man. Some of the innovations shared by the MPCH and MPCJ evidently indicate a changing epoch: of such a nature would be the replacement of the yakşiņā of the gate (Av. and MPC) by the durgā (MPCJ and MPCH).
Despite the dependence of Haribhadra on the MPCJ his acquaintance with and use of the puvva-cariya—the MPC-is incontestable. The opening verse of invocation has been taken over bodily. So have the two verses (698 and 700) in the narrative of the muni Dhanada and the two verses (928 and 929) ex
lling Metārya. The MPCH avoids the long doctrinal digressions of the MPCJ and follows in its proportions the original MPC; and its style though terser is essentially very close to that of the narrative portions of the MPC.