Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 2

Author(s): G C Chaudhary
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 49

40 VAISHALI INSTITUTE RESEARCH BULLETIN NO. 2 with the poetic conventions and in composing on the models furnished by earlier poets. The latter is just another name for plagiarism (harapa). In illustrating this sort of composition he has borrowed all his examples from Rājaśek hara. He classifies it under four heads : (I) reflection-like, (II) portrait-like, (III) like two similar individuals and (IV) like incursion into other's territory, just in the manner of Rajasekhara. His approach is eclectic. His personal contribution, however, lies in rearranging the data supplied by Rajasekhara under different heads and in supplementing him with Kşemendra.
What strikes one in this brief survey is Rājasekhara's extremely soft attitude towards plagiarism which almost verges on to advocacy. In his elaborate treatment of the subject he supplies what may be called ways and means of practising this art. Thus though indirectly, he almost preaches it. Such an indulgent attitude to plagiarism cannot be said to be healthy sign. A growing cult of predetermined borrowing is a sure sign of a bankruptsy of thought and creative ability which in its turn reflects a period of decadence in literature and a cultural decline, History of Sanskrit literature bears it out, Rājasekhara's time was a period of literary and cultural decadence.