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

6 VĀSAVADATTĀ that little stress can be laid upon it, especially in view of the legendary character of the work as a whole. Finally, mention should also be made, for the sake of completeness, of an apparent allusion to the Vāsavadattā in Daṇḍin's Daśakumāracarita (ed. Godabole and Parab, p. 110, lines 11–12, Bombay, 1898): anurūpabhartṛgāminīnāṁ ca vāsavadattādīnāṁ varṇanēna grā- hayā 'nuśayam, ‘and make her repent by a description of Vāsavadattā and others who gained suitable husbands.’ This clearly refers, however, to the well-known story of Vāsavadattā and Udayana (see above, p. 2); and it is equally impossible that the vāsavadattām adhikṛtya kṛtō granthaḥ mentioned in the Vārttika (probably third century B.C.) on Pāṇini, 4. 3. 87, should be connected in any way with Subandhu’s romance. It should also be noted that Narasiṁha Vaidya, one of the glossators of the Vāsavadattā, says: kavir ayam vikramāditya- sabhyaḥ. tasmin rājñi lōkāntaram prāptē ētan nibandham kṛtavān, ‘this poet [Subandhu] was a retainer of Vikramāditya. When this king attained the other world, he [Subandhu] composed this work’ (Hall, Introd., p. 6, note). Hall’s manuscript D, more- over, which belongs to what I may tentatively call the ‘South Indian recension’ of the Vāsavadattā (see below, p. 38), terms Subandhu ‘the son of Vararuci’s sister’ (śrīvararucibhāginēya), Vararuci himself being, as is well known, one of the ‘nine gems’ of Vikramāditya’s court, flourishing at least later than the fifth century (Bloch, Vararuci und Hemacandra, p. 13, Gütersloh, 1893; cf. Macdonell, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 324, London, 1900). Hall denies that Subandhu was Vararuci’s nephew (Introd., pp. 6–7), but it is possible that the tradition contains a larger element of truth than is often supposed (cf. Wilson, Works, 5. 177, London, 1865). It is, at all events, echoed by the Bhōjaprabandha,—whatever be the value assigned to such testimony—which associates Subandhu and Vararuci in the passage already referred to. Inscriptions of India mention Subandhu only once to my knowledge. This single instance is a Canarese record of 1168 A.D., found at Balagāmi (Rice, Mysore Inscriptions, p. 111,