Indian Kavya Literature : Vol. VI. The Art of Storytelling/A.K. Warder. Delhi,
Motilal Banarsidass, 1992, xiv, 852 p., ISBN 81-208-0615-8.
Indian Kavya Literature : Vol. VI. The Art of Storytelling/A.K. Warder. Delhi,
Motilal Banarsidass, 1992, xiv, 852 p., ISBN 81-208-0615-8.
Contents: Preface. 46. The Vikramaditya legend and Sanskrit epic in the early +11. 47. Bhoja, Soddhala, Jinesvara, Dhanesvara and fiction in the second quarter of the +11. 48. Vallana, Ksemendra and Krsnamisra. 49. Bilhana, Vardhamana, Manovinoda and their contemporaries. Additional bibliography for volume VI. Index.
"Volume VI continues the exploration of Indian Literature (Kavya) into the eleventh century, from Padmagupta and Atula to Bilhana and Manovinoda. The reason why this one century appears to occupy a whole volume here is hinted in the subtitle, for the volume contains substantial retrospects over storytelling in earlier centuries. A little of this has been touched on in previous volumes, but its development is obscured by difficulties of chronology and especially by the fact that we can rarely say an extant version of a story is the original one. In the Vedic tradition we look back from the Vikramaditya cycle [4392-4] as known in the eleventh century to the stories connected with Nanda, including the presumed original of the Thousand and one nights, and Sudraka. In the Buddhist tradition, from Atisa [4842] and Ksemendra [5017] in the same century we are looking at cycles associated with Bimbisara [4395], Asoka, Kaniska [4397] and Satavahana [4398]. In the Jaina tradition [4630ff.] we find Jaina versions of many of these stories. All three seem to lay equal claim to Udayana [1395], but the Jainas leave him a minor figure in the time of Bimbisara-Srenika [4665].
Since these stories have collected round the names of historical kings, one might suppose we are concerned here with history, not fiction. But the fact is that from Bimbisara to Vikramaditya there is very little in these legends which a historian would credit. In the stories fancied to be told to them and the anecdotes, for such they are, told about them, there is hardly an episode which is not stark fiction, including marvels and miracles believed produced by forces from past lives, even science fiction such as transmutation into gold (Satavahana). The historical peg merely induces belief and enjoyment, for all the stories, except one, are presented as, true. Their 'truth', we can say, is rather an aesthetic truth where a 'good' story is a beautiful story, that is an entertaining, usually amusing, story, but with a 'moral': a universal truth is shown by the particular example.
In the eleventh century besides what seems to be the culminating point of the storytelling tradition (Bhoja, Ksemendra, Somadeva, etc.), there are a number of surviving long novels, by Soddhala, Jinesvara, Dhanesvara and Vardhamana. Even epics (e.g. Padmagupta's) seem to be assimilated to fiction, and that even when extracted from tradition (Laksmidhara). The Jaina narratives of jinas and the like, supposed to be historical, arte likewise subject to the all-pervading influence of fiction (Bhavacandra, Gunapala).
Beyond the scope of this influence, the rich imagination of the lyric poet Vallana composed verses in the best, and original, tradition of kavya. Among the rare dramas surviving from the eleventh century is Krsnamisra's allegorical religious play personifying Vedic categories and the virtues, led by discrimination, and vices, led by elusion." (jacket)