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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
LITERARY HISTORY (Commentary) ...........Yathā Dēśarājacharitam. (Translation) (Text) ...........âA Poem composed in prose and verse is designated Champū.â (Commentary) ...........âFor example, the Dēśarājacharita.â Surely, the Dēśarājacharita, which is the instance given of Champū here, must mean “the Adventures of Dēśarāja,” Whoever he was. It must, therefore, have had a plot of its own like the Daśakumāracharita. The only difference between the two is that, whereas in the latter work the plot is set forth in prose, in the case of the former it must have been done nearly half in prose and nearly half in verse. To say, therefore, that Harishēṇa’s Kāvya is a Champū simply because it is partly in prose and partly in verse is to say that the Kādambarī and the Harshacharita are also Champūs in spite of the fact that they have been classed by the Sāhityadarpaṇa under gadya-kāvya. The critical test here, in all these cases, is vastu or plot. This answers the question in the negative. Harishēṇa’s kāvya may be partly in prose and partly in verse. But, as it has no vastu or plot, it cannot be styled Kathā, Ākhyāyikā or Champū. But we ought not stop here. For the very next variety which has been mentioned of the gadya-padya-maya-kāvya in the Sāhityadarpaṇa is Biruda which is thus defined:
(Text) ..................Gadya-padya-mayi rāja-stutir=Birudam=uchyatē / (Translation) ...........âThe panegyric of a king, in prose and verse, is styled Biruda.â This definition suits Harishēṇa’s eulogium of Samudragupta so excellently that no doubt can arise as to this Kāvya having to be designated Biruda. We shall now discuss the Rīti or the Style of Composition to which this praśasti pertains.
Bühler has no doubt that Harishēṇa follows the style of the southerners, or the Vaidarbhī
Rīti as it has been called. “The language of the verses is,” says he, “on the whole, simple, and
especially the compounds of extraordinary length, which are found used by Vatsabhaṭṭi, are
carefully avoided.”1 “With the prose part of the panegyric, however,” Bühler further remarks, “things are quite otherwise. Here, simple words are only the exception, while very
long compounds are the general rule, the longest compound (lines 19-20) containing more 1 Ind. Ant., Vol. XLII, p. 175.
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