Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Studies in Indian Art c11.s2: 11. Prākāravapra Kuṇḍala

Studies in Indian Art c11.s2

Language
English

11. Prākāravapra Kuṇḍala

c11.s2.1

In the Virāṭa Parvan 10.1 (Critical Edition) occurs the following verse:

c11.s2.2

व्यापरोज्दृश्यत रूपसंपदा स्त्रीणामलंकारधरो बृहत्मान् ।
प्राकारवप्रे प्रतिमुच्य कुण्डले दीर्घं च कम्बु परिहाटके शुभे ॥

c11.s2.3

Arjuna as Bṛhannaḍā appears in female disguise wearing ornaments which consisted of a pair of kuṇḍalas and a pair of beautiful golden bracelets. The phrase prākāra-vapra qualifying kuṇḍala appears to have presented much difficulty. Amongst the variant readings we find that the only Kashmiri manuscript written in Śāradā characters available for this Parva substitutes प्राकारवक्ष: for प्राकारवप्रे, but it stands alone in this reading, which appears to be an emendation of the original knotty text. The redactor perhaps ingeniously thought that प्राकार and वप्र being synonyms, one of them was superfluous; and since प्राकार does lend itself as a suitable उपमान for a hero's ideal chest, the correction naturally suggested itself. The three Devanāgarī manuscripts (DI-3) got rid of the difficulty by changing the text to स्थित्वा च वप्रे, which conveys little sense in the present context. It should be mentioned, however, that the remaining nine Devanāgarī manuscripts collated for the Critical Edition faithfully adhere to the old text tradition by retaining प्राकारवप्रे, although its satisfactory explanation may not have been grasped. The South Indian recensions, evidently to obviate the difficulty of suitably explaining प्राकारवप्रे, changed it to प्रवाळचित्रे, which is of poor value from the point of view of an original reading. The learned Editor of the Critical Edition of the Virāṭa Parvan must be congratulated for retaining प्राकारवप्रे as the traditional text, although he does so with a wavy underline. This reading, besides respecting the overwhelming testimony of the manuscripts is by far the best and the happiest for illuminating the verse with an original beautiful meaning.

c11.s2.4

The term प्राकारवप्रे as the qualifying epithet of an ear ornament was used in a technical sense as the name of a particular kind of kuṇḍalas. This type of kuṇḍala is common in the ears of the male and the female figures at Bharhut (Fig. 57) and Sanchi and in other places where specimens of early Indian art are preserved. This ornament consists of a prominent square plaque seen in front of the ear, to which a projection with two spiral turns is attached at the back and worn in the earlobe. Its front portion is adorned with the design of a four-petalled flower. Clear examples of such ear ornaments (Fig. 58) can be seen in Cunninstatues in India. Some of the city-walls incidentally shown in sculpture possess a coping decorated with a band of four-petalled flowers exactly similar to that decorating the kuṇḍalas. This can be seen in the representation of the city of Banaras at Amarāvatī illustrated by Dr. Coomaraswamy in his *Early Indian Architecture*, I Cities and Citygates, Fig. 13.

c11.s2.5

Fig. 57. Prākāravapra Kuṇḍala

c11.s2.6

Fig. 58. Prākāravapra Kuṇḍala

c11.s2.7

In ancient architecture the *prākāra* and *vapra* go together. As stated by Dr. Coomaraswamy, "On the city side of the moat rises the wall (*pākāra*, Skt. *prākāra*), from a foundation or plinth (*vapra*)." [Ibid. p. 213]. In the same place he says that *vapra* and *prākāra* are sometimes treated as synonyms (Acharya, *Dictionary of Hindu Architecture*, 534), but in Kauṭilya's *Arthaśāstra* we have वप्रस्योपरि प्राकारम् i.e., the *prākāra* (wall) was raised on the *vapra* (plinth).¹ Dr. Otto Stein has also observed that the texts and the respective descriptions in literature are not always strict in distinguishing the *vapra* and *prākāra* (*Arthaśāstra* and *Śilpaśāstra*, *Archiv Orientalni*, Vol. 7, p. 483).

c11.s2.8

Some specialised investigation is needed to arrive at the exact significance of the two words in earlier and later literatures. But it appears that the distinction in their meaning was later on missed and the two began to be treated as synonyms. In the compound phrase *prākāra-vapra*, *Vapra* seems to resemble the spiral attachment and *prākāra* the cubical block portion of the heavy *kuṇḍalas* familiar to us in the sculptures of the Maurya and Sunga periods.

c11.s2.9

It may be noted that the word *parihāṭaka* is used twice to qualify *kambu* or a pair of bracclets, which must have been made of gold (Virāṭa, 10.¹,5); and again twice to describe the *kuṇḍalas* worn by Arjuna (Virāṭa, 15.2; 18-19). The expression परिहाटके कुण्डले of the Mahābhārata reminds us of the graphic reference to such *kuṇḍalas* by Patañjali as खदिराङ्गारसवर्ण कुण्डले (Mahābhāshya ed. Kielhorn, Vol. I, p. 7) and by Manu as शुभे रौक्मे च कुण्डले (IV. 36).

c11.s2.10

¹ c.f. also वप्र=(१) प्राकार (२) प्राकारमूल । अस्त्री क्षेत्रे वास्तुभूमौ प्राकारे सानुरोधसोः । प्राकारमूलके त्वाह वैजयन्त्या पुमांस्त्वसौ । नानार्थार्णव संक्षेप १।११७०

Linked texts (3)