Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

Author(s): Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

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3. THE STORY OF YASODHARA AND ITS SOURCES
incorporated also in Haribhadra's Prakrit romance Samaraiccakaha. Haribhadra was one of the gurus of Uddyotana, and his literary activity is assigned to the middle of the eighth century.
HARIBHADRA'S PRAKRIT VERSION
The story of Yasodhara occurs in the fourth Bhava of Samaraiccakaha in connection with the story Dhana and Dhanaśrī. Haribhadra's version is a detailed narrative, and important as recording the story as it was current two hundred years before it was handled by Somadeva. Its most notable feature is the absence of the episode of Maradatta and the projected human sacrifice in the temple of Canḍamārī. It may be surmised, although we cannot be sure on the point, that this was a later addition to the story of Yasodhara. Apart from this and certain other minor divergences, the Prakrit version does not materially differ from the story as we have it in Somadeva's Yasastilaka. Another noteworthy feature is that the names of the principal characters differ in the earlier version, and the name Yasodhara occurs only at the end. As in Somadeva's romance, the narrative is in the form of an autobiographical record, and related by the monk Yasodhara to Dhana, the hero of the fourth Bhava of Samaraiccakaha. The story as told by Haribhadra may be summarized as follows.
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Surendradatta was the son of Amaradatta, the king of Visala. Yasodhara was his mother and Nayanavali his wife. Surendradatta ceeded his father on the throne, and on a certain occasion made up his mind to renounce the world on discovering a white hair on his head, saying that the messenger of Dharma had arrived. On the eve of his departure from worldly life, he passed a night with his consort Nayanavali in her mansion, and was surprised to see her slink away from his side at the dead of night. Fearing that she might have gone out to commit suicide in her grief at the impending separation from him, he followed her footsteps, sword in hand, and was amazed to see her in the embrace of a hunchback, who was employed as a watchman at the palace. The king, who observed them unseen, drew his sword and was about to kill the guilty pair, but restrained himself, thinking of his past affection for the queen, the follies of women, and the young prince Gunadhara, his son. He then returned to bed and feigned to be asleep, and was shortly afterwards joined by the queen, who quietly laid herself to rest by his side.
Next night the king saw in a dream that he was sitting on a throne on the top of the palace, but was thrown to the ground by his mother Yasodhara, speaking something that was contrary to his wishes. He went
1 Ed. by Jacobi, Bibliotheca Indica, No, 169, Calcutta 1926.