kavidarpan

Author(s): H D Velankar
Publisher: Rajasthan Prachyavidya Pratishtan

Page 8

Foreword by the General Editor
Virahānka's Vrttajātisamuccaya and Svayambhū's Svayambhūcchandas represent the tradition in metrics prior to Hemacandra. The Kavidarpaņa, on the other hand, can be taken to represent to a degree the post-Hemcandra metrical tradition. Even though it treats of the Varņavsttas as well as the Mātrāvrttas, it is primarily interested in the Prakrit and Apabhraṁs'a Mātrā-metres. It is quite familiar with the Chandonusrāsana, but the method of treatment and scheme of classification are considerably different. From the hints and observations of the commentator, we gather that in these matters the Kavidarpana belonged probably to a tradition that was represented by Manoratha and the Chandahkandalī with regards to Prākrit-Apabhraṁs'a metres and by S'ūra with regards to Sanskrit ones. Unfortunately these sources are lost co us and the importance of the Kavidarpana, besides other things, lies in preserving for us that new school of prosody. The several eulogistic references to Kings Bhimadeva, Siddharāja Jayasimha, Kumārapāla and Sākambhari-rāja (as also to some Jainācāryas) found in the illustrations adduced by the unknown Jain author and the commentator point to the latter's very close connection with the regions of Gujarāta and Rājasthan.
In his learned and exhaustive introduction Prof. Velankar has discuss d all the important points relating to the work. While giving a critical analysis of the contents, he has drawn our attention to the borrowings, correspondences and parallels from the whole field of earlier literature on the classical metres. His comparative approach has shed light on numerous points and his discussion of the history and significance of the names Ullāla, Kāvya, Vstta, Jäti, Vitāna, Upajāti etc. are especially rich in illuminating information.
Besides the Ka vidarpaņa and its commentary, the present volume includes two other short manuals of Prakrit-Apabhraṁs'a metres (the Gathālakṣana of Nanditādhya and the Chandaḥkos a of Ratnasekhara) and also the text of Nandişena's Ajita-Sānti-Stava along with the metrical definitions of its commentator Jinaprabha. Of these the Gathālakṣaṇa seems to have reached us in a composite form. Prof. Velankar suspects of several interpolations. His view that vol. 26-30 are unde. fined, quite out of context and hence likely interpolations, is borne out