Two Prakrit Versions of Manipati Charitra

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

Page 29

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TWO PRAKRIT VERSIONS OF THE MANIPATI-CARITA
1. dūa-vāṇara-k. 2. bambhaņa-naula-k. 3. vaggha-vejja-k. 4. loga-vasaha-k. 5. hatthi-tāvasa-k. 6. rāyasuya-cūavaņa-k. 7. pahiya-sivaņi-k. 8. rāya-dunduha-k. 9. cora-ārakkha-k. 10. suvannayāra-Meyajja-k.
However, since the Digambara tradition of the stories had been lost he sought his material in an extant Svetāmbara work, the MPC and employed it wherever his ready-made titles suggested its applicability. The hypothesis seems plausible and is lent added weight by curious coincidences of names. Manipati and his wife and son are there, so is Accankāriya-bhattā (curiously Sanskritised as Curkārikā), and the famous Lakşapāka oil is mentioned. -At the same time there are slight tricks of memory: the layman who succours and then accuses Maņipati has become Jinadatta, which in the MPC is the name of the graceless son; and Cārabhați who kills the mongoose has taken the name of Kapilā (in the MPC the brahmin cook who will not give alms to Jaina sädhus). Metārya is left under his Prakrit appellation of Medajja.
Elsewhere in the BKK stories from the MPC seem to have been used : the parallels are clear though the presupposition of borrowing is less strong : 9. Sreņika-n;pa-k.
MPC 2(a) 28. Śūramitra-Sūracandrādi-k. . MPC A 47. Nāgadatta-k.
MPC 10 85. Devarati-nȚpa-k.
MPC 5 100. Dhanya-Mitrādi-k.
MPC A 105. Hastaka-śreşthi-k.
MPC 4.