The Buddhist Legend of Jimutavahana: From the Katha-sarit-sagara

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The Buddhist legend of Jimutavahana is related twice in the course of the Kathasaritsagara and is dramatised in a play called the Nagananda. The first of these works, the title of which means the 'Ocean-River of Story" is a production of the 10th or 11th century AD. It is entirely in verse, founded by its author, Somadeva, on an earlier collection of existing legends related in a work called Vrihat Katha, which goes back to the 2nd century A.D. The drama, Nagananda, follows the line of the legend very closely, as given in the 22nd Chapter of Kathasaritsagara. The authorship is uncertain, though all duly qualified judges assign 7th century AD. as the date of its composition.

Avery interesting point about the drama is its religious atmosphere. It is a practical exposition of the doctrines and practices of Buddhism. The character of Jimutavahana is carefully drawn and is worth studying.

Prof. Sanghasen Singh of Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Delhi has provided a thought provoking introduction to the present edition which enchanced value for the benefit of researchers and to all those intereseted in the subject.

Sri Harsha Deva (Sri Harsha, Harshavardhana). A Sanskrit dramatist and king of Kanauj (606-48). Himself a poet of no mean order, he was a great patron of poets, prominent among them were Bana, Mayura and Matangadivakara (qq.v). Three plays, viz., the Ratnavali, Priyadarsika and Nagananda (qqv) are ascribed to him; doubts have, however, been raised regarding Harsha's authorship of all these plays, mainly on the strength of a stray remark of Mammta in his Kavya-prakasa and the explanation of the same by some of the commentators; Bana, however, praises his patron Harsha as being endowed with poetic genius. I-tsing (end of the 7th cent.) records that king Siläditya (Le, harsha) verified the story of Bodhisattva Jimütavahana and acted it on the stage; Damodaragupta in his Kuttanimata ascribed the Ratnavali to a royal author.

In comparison with Kalidasa and earlier dramatist, Sri-Harsha is much inferior in art and style, there being not much originality, but he has effectively devised the plot in both the Ratnavali and Priyadarsika; the emotion of love is noble and gay. In the Nagananda, "Harsha rises in depicting the emotions of self-sacrifice, charity, magnanimity, and resolution in the face of death.

THE Buddhist legend of Jîmûtavâhana is re- lated twice in the course of the Kathâsarit- sâgara, in the 22nd and 90th chapters, and is dramatised in a play called the Nâgânanda. The first of these works, the title of which means the "Ocean-river of Story," is a pro- duction of the 10th or 11th century A.D. It is entirely in verse, founded by its author, Somadeva, on an earlier collection of existing legends related in a work called Vrihat Kathâ, which goes back to the 2nd century A.D. The drama, the Nâgânanda, follows the line of the legend very closely, as given in the 22nd chapter of the Kathâsaritsâgara. Nâgâ- nanda signifies "The joy of the world of serpents," and refers to the hero Jîmûtavâ- hana, who is the centre of the drama. The authorship is uncertain, though all duly qualified judges assign the 7th century A.D. as the date of its composition. The editor of the drama in the original Sanskrit, published at Bombay in 1892, Srinivas Govind Bhânap (from whose edition the following translation has been made) attributes it to King Śrî Harsha, and is of opinion that it is by the same author as a drama called the Ratnâvali. He justifies this by the similarity (or more than similarity) between certain expressions and situations in the two dramas, and which would be the most barefaced plagiarism, unless they were the work of the same author. Professor Cowell (the late learned Sanskrit professor at Cambridge), on the other hand, thinks that the difference of religious tone between the two dramas makes it quite impossible that they can be by the same author. Whoever might have been the real author, it is quite possible that the play was attributed to King Śrî Harsha, out of compliment to him, since it was brought out by his order and under his patronage, though he might have had nothing to do with its composition.

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