South Indian Inscriptions

LITERATURE

Some other Prakrit verses in the Dhvanyālōka appear to have been taken from the same work, though this has not been explicitly stated by Ānandavardhana.¹

... The next writer who mentions Sarvasēna is Kuntaka, the famous author of the Vakrōktijīvita. He classes Sarvasēna with Kālidāsa among writers of the sukumāra-mārga (elegant style).² Bhōja, the author of the Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa, cites two Prakrit verses, which from their contents appear to have been taken from the Harivijaya. The first of these states why Satyabhāmā alone in the midst of the other wives of Kṛishṇa got enraged by humiliation (when the Pārijāta flowers obtained from heaven were presented by Kṛishṇa to Rukmiṇī). The second verse seems to have been addressed by Kṛishna to Satyabhāmā. Says he, “ If I had appeased you, who had become enraged by (the presentation of) flowers (to Rukmiṇī), by offering the same flowers to you, it would not have been in keeping with either my love for you or my offence against you. (Hence I am honouring you with the gift of the Pārijāta tree itself.)” In his other work Sṛiṅgāraprakāśa also Bhōja cites several verse from the Harivijaya. Thus in the prakāśas xxii-xxiv, which have been published, as many as six verse have been quoted from that kāvya as stated by the editor in the Index of Prakrit verses of those chapters. Several more verses must have been cited in other chapters which are still unpublished.

... Hēmachandra,³ the Jain polymath, has referred to the Harivijaya in several places in his vivṛiti on the Alaṅkārachūḍāmaṇi, which gives us several bits of interesting information. For instance, he tells us that like the Sētubandha, the Harivijaya was throughout written in one metre (viz., Skandhaka) and that the verses in the Galitaka metre found therein were later interpolations. The last verse of each canto contained the word utsāha, just as that in the āśvāsa of the Sētubandha contains anurāga. Its theme, as stated above, was the forcible removal of the Pārijāta tree by subduing Indra for the appeasement of Satyabhāmā. It seems that Kṛishṇa had at first sent Sātyaki as a nisṛishṭārtha-dūta, i.e. as a Commissioner invested with full powers of negotiation. Like other mahākāvyas it contained the description of the city (Dvārakā), the hero (Kṛishṇa), the season spring, sunset, horses, elephants, drinking parties and so forth. Ultimately, Kṛishṇa invaded heaven, vanquished Indra and forced him to part with the celestial tree Pārijāta, which he presented to Satyabhāmā to appease her anger.

... The Harivijaya is probably the earliest Prakrit kāvya known so far.⁴ It fully conforms to the norm of the mahākāvyas and seems to have served as a model for the Sanskrit and Prakrit kāvyas of Kālidāsa and Pravarasēna II, who flourished in a later age. It seems to have been current in India down to the twelfth century A.C. ; for, Daṇḍin (7th cen.), Ānandavardhana (9th cen.), Kuntaka (10th cen.), Bhōja (11th cen.), Abhinavagupta (11th cen.) and Hēmachandra (12th cen.) either refer to Sarvasēna by name or cite verses referring to incidents in that kāvya. I have not seen references to it in later works and no manuscripts of it are known to exist anywhere.

... Sarvasēna seems to have composed some Prakrit gāthās also. Gaṅgādharabhaṭṭa, whose commentary has been published in the Nirṇayasāgar edition of the Gāthāsaptaśatī, does
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¹ For instance the verse sajjeī surahi-māso, etc., which has been cited in more than one place (ibid., pp. 106, 236 etc.) as descriptive of the vernal season, is also probably taken from the Harivijaya, which, as shown below, did contain a description of that season.
² Cf. सहजसोकुमार्यसुभगानि कालिदासमर्वसेनादीनां काव्यानि लव्यन्ते।Vakroktijivita, p. 71.
³ See Hēmachandra’s Kāvyānuśāsana, ed. by Rasik Lal, pp. 457 f.
⁴ The Paümachariu of Vimalasūri was, according to a statement in that work, composed in the year 530 after the Nirvāṇa of Mahavīra i.e. in 64 A.C., but this date is regarded as doubtful. Prof. Jacobi places the kāvya ‘ in the third century A.C. or somewhat later.’