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PRAKRIT
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learned allusion; those of the countryside are remarkably realistic. Whatever topic he touches, Vākpati invests with fresh life and beauty.
Haribhadra is an eminent logician and a famous author of the 8th C. He calls himself Yākini-mahattara sunu. His Samaraiccakahā is a Prakrit campu which delineats the inimical behaviour of two souls through nine births. He is a close student of human life and behaviour of men under varying conditions. He is a master of artistic style, especially in his description of towns, lakes, ungles. and temples, interwoven with dogmatical teachings and didactic episodes of religious flavour. At times his style is simple and conversational. Another Prākrit work of his is the Dhurtākhyāna, a unique satire in Indian literature. Here five rogues, four men and one woman, narrate their personal experiences. Their fantastic and absurd tales are confirmed by the others, with parallel legends from the epics and Purāņas; the Purānic legends are satirised. As a literary product, the work is for ahead of its times.
The Kuvalayamālē (779 A. D.) of Uddyõtana, a pupil of Haribhadra, though resembling the Samaraiccakahā in its aim, uses Paisaci and Apabhramśa for popular passage, besides the usual Jain Mahārāstri. The religiodidactic tone is apparent throughout the work; the background of Jain ideology is not concealed, but on the whole it is a literary performance. The author's glowing references to earlier authors and works, and to the yavana king Tõramāṇa, supply such fresh material to the literary and political historian.
The Lilāvati of Kutukala, earlier than Bhoja, is a stylistic, romantic Kāvya, with considerable racy narration. It tells the love story of king Sāļavāhan and Lilāvați, a princess from Simhaladvipa. The threads of the story are a bit complicated but the scenes are attractively sketched, and the sentiments are served with freshness and flavour. In all probability Hēmacandra knew this poem, and used it for his grammer.
In ornamental Jain Mahārāstri prose and verse (with a few passages in Apabhramsa) Gunacandra composed his Mahäviracariya
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