DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42112#0011
PREFACE
vii
original sequence. The time of the author of the Nemiduta is
unknown ;1 but a reference to the table on pages xv-xix below
and to the appendix will show that he used a recension of the
Meghaduta which included fourteen of the spurious verses.
An evidently much earlier work of a similar type is the
Parsvdhhgudaga, a poetical biography of the Arhat Parsvanatha
by Jinasenachiirya,2 which embodies the whole text of the
Meghaduta. To Professor K. B. Pathak we are indebted for
an edition of Kalidasa’s poem according to this recension
(Poona, 1894) :—“ Each stanza in the Pdrsalhlii/udai/a borrows
one or two lines from the Meghaduta, the remaining lines being
composed by Jinasena himself. In this wav the entire poem
of Kalidasa is subjected to the process of what is known as
Samasyapurana. By the well-known rules of this process
Jinasena was bound to accept Kalidasa’s verses as he found
them, without in the slightest way altering them; otherwise
his reputation as a consummate master of versification would
have suffered considerably, and he would have exposed himself
to ridicule in the eyes of his Brahmin contemporaries. The
Meghaduta easily lent itself to Jinasena’s purpose, as the story
of the exiled Yaksha presents a striking resemblance to certain
incidents in the life of Parsvanatha, which forms the theme
of the Jaina poem. Kalidasa is thus made to sing in his
own words the glory of the naked Tirthankara ” (Introduction,
p. 14). Thus Professor Patliak’s edition “represents the text
of the poem as it was known to Jinasena in the latter part
of the eighth century or before Saka 705, the date of his first
work, the Jaiua-Harivamsa, when he must have learnt the
poem from the lips of his teacher Vlrasena” (ibid., p. 15).
Jinasena’s date is only about a century and a half subsequent
to the two earliest mentions of the poet Kalidasa in the
1 Cf. Pischel’s remarks in Abhandlungen, Gottingen, 1893, p. 27.
2 See J. Bombay Hr. B.A.S., vol. IS, p. 224; Bp. Indvol. 4, p. 25; Ind.
Ant., vol. 36, p. 287.
vii
original sequence. The time of the author of the Nemiduta is
unknown ;1 but a reference to the table on pages xv-xix below
and to the appendix will show that he used a recension of the
Meghaduta which included fourteen of the spurious verses.
An evidently much earlier work of a similar type is the
Parsvdhhgudaga, a poetical biography of the Arhat Parsvanatha
by Jinasenachiirya,2 which embodies the whole text of the
Meghaduta. To Professor K. B. Pathak we are indebted for
an edition of Kalidasa’s poem according to this recension
(Poona, 1894) :—“ Each stanza in the Pdrsalhlii/udai/a borrows
one or two lines from the Meghaduta, the remaining lines being
composed by Jinasena himself. In this wav the entire poem
of Kalidasa is subjected to the process of what is known as
Samasyapurana. By the well-known rules of this process
Jinasena was bound to accept Kalidasa’s verses as he found
them, without in the slightest way altering them; otherwise
his reputation as a consummate master of versification would
have suffered considerably, and he would have exposed himself
to ridicule in the eyes of his Brahmin contemporaries. The
Meghaduta easily lent itself to Jinasena’s purpose, as the story
of the exiled Yaksha presents a striking resemblance to certain
incidents in the life of Parsvanatha, which forms the theme
of the Jaina poem. Kalidasa is thus made to sing in his
own words the glory of the naked Tirthankara ” (Introduction,
p. 14). Thus Professor Patliak’s edition “represents the text
of the poem as it was known to Jinasena in the latter part
of the eighth century or before Saka 705, the date of his first
work, the Jaiua-Harivamsa, when he must have learnt the
poem from the lips of his teacher Vlrasena” (ibid., p. 15).
Jinasena’s date is only about a century and a half subsequent
to the two earliest mentions of the poet Kalidasa in the
1 Cf. Pischel’s remarks in Abhandlungen, Gottingen, 1893, p. 27.
2 See J. Bombay Hr. B.A.S., vol. IS, p. 224; Bp. Indvol. 4, p. 25; Ind.
Ant., vol. 36, p. 287.