South Indian Inscriptions

LITERATURE

not name Sarvasēna among the known authors of the gāthās, but, as Weber has shown, another commentator Bhuvanapāla ascribes two verses, viz., 217 and 234 to him. Pītām. bara, a third commentator, whose commentary on the gāthās has been published recently, mentions Sarvasēna’s name in connection with two more verses, viz, 504 and 505. The attribution of these gāthās to Sarvasēna furnishes additional evidence for the identification of the author with the homonymous king who ruled over Southern Vidarbha.

... During the reign of Sarvasēna and his successors, Vatsagulma appears to have become a centre of learning, and the Prakrit kāvyas and subhāshitas composed there evolved a style called Vachchhōmī, (Vātsagulmī), which became a synonym of Vaidarbhī. Rājaśēkhara mentions Vachchhōmī in this sense in the opening verse of his Karpūramañjari.

... Like Sarvasēna, Pravarasēna II of the Senior branch of the Vākāṭaka family distinguished himself by the composition of Prakrit poetry. He is the reputed author of the Prakrit kāvya Sētubandha, also called Rāvaṇavaho, in the Mahārāshṭrī Prakrit. According to some scholars¹ this Pravarasēna was Pravarasēna II of Kāśhmīr, and the kāvya was composed to commemorate a bridge of boats constructed across the river Vitastā. This theory is, however, untenable ; for, the Rājataraṅgiṇī, which mentions the construction of the bridge, makes no reference to this kāvya.² Rāmadāsa, a commentator of the kāvya, has, on the other hand, recorded the tradition that the work was actually composed by Kālidāsa, who ascribed it to Pravarasēna by the order of Vikramāditya. This tradition can be satis factorily explained only if this Pravarasēna is identified with Pravarasēna II of the Vākāṭaka family; for, the latter was the daughter’s son of Chandragupta II-Vikramāditya. We have seen above that Kālidāsa, who enjoyed the patronage of Chandragupta II, probably stayed at the Vākāṭaka capital Nandivardhana for some time, and while there, composed his Mēghadūta, which mentions the holy place Rāmagiri, situated not far from that capital. It is therefore not unlikely that he helped his patron’s daughter’s son Pravarasēna II in composing the kāvya during his sojourn in Vidarbha. This explains also the tradition³ preserved by Rāmadāsa that Pravarasēna was called Bhōjadēva; for, Bhōja was the name of the ancient dynasty of Vidarbha. Verse 9 of the first canto of Sētubandha states that the work was commenced by Pravarasēna soon after his accession and that he occasionally found it difficult to carry it on.⁴ On such occasions he must have received help from Kālidāsa, which is recorded in the aforementioned tradition as well as in the colophons of the cantos of the Prakrit kāvya.

... The Sētubandha has for its theme the epic story of Rāma from his advance against Rāvaṇa and the building of a bridge of stone to Laṅkā to his return to Ayōdhyā after the extermination of the demon king. The work is divided into fifteen cantos called āśvāsas, and contains 1362 verses. The prevailing metre is Skandhaka, but verses in other metres also are interspersed in the middle and also added at the end of each canto.

... The Setubandha is composed in an artistic style considered suitable for a mahākāvya, with the use of puns and long compounds. It was plainly written for a public which was well versed in Sanskrit, and contains a description of all the topics considered essential in a Sanskrit mahākāvya. It has been highly praised by Sanskrit poets and rhetoricians. Bāṇa says in his Harshacharita that by means of this Sētu (i.e. Sētubandha) the fame of Pravarasēna crossed the ocean, as the army of monkeys had done before by means of the bridge (of Rāma)
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¹ Macdonell, History of Sanskrit Literature, pp. 331-32; Keith, History of Sanskrit Literature, pp. 132 f.
² Rājataraṅgini, III, 354.
³ Sētubandha, I, 9.
⁴ Cf. अहिषवाआरद्धा चुक्‍कक्सलिएसु बिहडिपरिट्‍ठविक्ष। मेन्तिब्व पमुहरसिआ णिच्‍चोढुं होइ दुक्‍करं कव्बकहा ॥