वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

INTRODUCTION 3 Sanskrit References to Subandhu. References in Sanskrit literature and inscriptions to our Subandhu (whose date is dis- cussed below, pp. 8–11) are but scanty. By far the most important allusion is contained in the eleventh stanza of Bāṇa’s introduction to his Harṣacarita (seventh century): kavīnām agalad darpō nūnaṁ vāsavadattayā śaktyē "va pāṇḍuputrāṇāṁ gatayā karṇagōcaram, ‘verily, the pride of <poets> melted away through the ≪Vāsava- dattā coming to their ears≫ even as the pride of the <sages> melted away through the Pāṇḍavas’ ≪Indra-given spear coming nigh Karṇa≫.’¹ Bāṇa is also supposed to allude to the Vāsava- dattā when, in the twentieth stanza of his introduction to his Kādambarī, he declares his new work to be iyam atidvayī kathā, ‘this story surpassing the two,’ these being, according to the commentator, the Vāsavadattā and the Bṛhatkathā. About a century later Vākpati, the author of the Prakrit historical poem Gaüḍavaha, wrote (v. 800), in describing himself: bhāsammi jalaṇamittē kantīdēvē a jassa rahuārē sōbandhavē a bandhammi hāriyandē a āṇandō, ‘in Bhāsa—the friend of fire—in the author of the Raghu (vaṁśa)—that lord of beauty—in Subandhu’s work, and in that of Haricandra is his delight.’ In Kavirāja’s Rāghavapāṇḍavīya, which dates from about 1200 A. D., occurs the stanza (I. 41): subandhur bāṇabhaṭṭaś ca kavirāja iti trayaḥ vakrōktimārganipuṇāś caturthō vidyatē na vā, ‘Subandhu, Bāṇabhaṭṭa, and Kavirāja—these three be skilful in the path of ambiguity²; a fourth there is not found.’ The ¹ This verse is interpolated at the end of the Vāsavadattā by the Telugu and Grantha editions, and Krishnamachariar (Introd., pp. 38–39) implies that it may have been written by Subandhu and later have found its way into the Harṣacarita. His theory is to me untenable. On the use of the signs < >, etc., see p. 17. ² On vakrōkti see Sāhityadarpaṇa, No. 641; Appayyadīkṣita, Kuvalayānandakārikā,

1. 158–159; Kāvyaprakāśa, tr. Jhā, pp. 181–182, Benares, 1898; Bernheimer and Jacobi, in ZDMG. 63. 797–821; 64. 130–139, 586–590, 751–759; 65. 308–312. Subandhu is also mentioned immediately before Bāṇa in the Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa according to Müller, India, What can it Teach us?, p. 331, note 5, London, 1883, but I have not been able to find the reference. B 2