A History of Sanskrit Literature c15.s3: 3. Bilhaṇa

A History of Sanskrit Literature c15.s3

Language: English

3. Bilhaṇa

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The author of the *Vikramāṅkadevacarita* has left us a much more interesting relic in the shape of the poem often called *Caurapañcāçikā*,¹ perhaps more correctly *Caurīsuratapañcāçikā*, fifty stanzas on a secret love. In two of the versions in which it is found, that of Kashmir² and that of South India,³ it is embedded in a poem styled *Bilhaṇakāvya*, in which, as also by the commentators, the poem is asserted to have been composed to record a secret intrigue with a princess. Discovered by the king, the poet was sentenced to death and led out for this purpose, but his recitation of the glowing verses, in which he called to his memory for the last time the joys of their secret union, induced the king to relent and permit his marriage to the princess. Thus far there is agreement, but the Kashmir version asserts that the princess was Candralekhā, daughter of Vīrasiṅha of Mahilapattana, while the southern version makes her Yāminīpūrṇatilakā, daughter of Madanābhirāma of Pañcāla. The commentator Rāma Tarkavāgīça (1798) insists⁴ that the poem is an appeal to Kālikā by the prince Sundara of Caurapallī when condemned to death by Vīrasiṅha for his intrigue with Vidyā, while the title has been explained as indicating that the poet was Caura, of whom indeed verses are extant. It is quite clear from Bilhaṇa's autobiography in his epic that he made no claim to royal intrigues, and common sense suggests that he portrayed the love of a robber chief and a princess, placing the robber in the delicate situation to which tradition assigned himself. The poem as a matter of fact merely makes it clear that the heroine was a princess; it refers to the poet's hour of death only in a probably spurious stanza, and the two stanzas prefixed to it in the Kashmir recension, even assuming their genuineness, are hard to interpret satisfactorily. The popularity of the text has rendered it most uncertain, but, as the author was a Kashmirian, and lived at a southern court, there is doubtless some reason for accepting as genuine the thirty-four stanzas vouched for by both these recensions. That from northern India agrees with both the others in seven stanzas only.

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¹ Ed. Haeberlin, 227 ff.; KM. xiii. 145-69.

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² Ed. W. Solf, Kiel, 1886.

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³ Ed. J. Ariel, JA. s. 4, xi. 469 ff. Cf. *Madras Catal.*, xx. 8004 ff. (ascribed to Corakavi).

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⁴ So in Bhāratacandra's *Vidyāsundara* (18th cent.); D. C. Sen, *Bengali Lang. and Lit.*, pp. 650 f.; *I. O. Catal.*, i. 1524.

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The Vasantatilaka stanzas depict with minute and often charming detail the past scenes of happy love, and possess an elegance which is not exhibited in the *Vikramāṅkadevacarita*, though with that poem the *Pañcāçikā* agrees in its simplicity of style, which has the great advantage of being in harmony with the tone of the poem and the feigned occasion of its recital. Nor can it be termed too long; there is sufficient variety in the ideas to prevent it becoming wearisome:

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*adyāpi tāṁ avigaṇayya kṛtāparādham: māṁ pādamūlapatitaṁ sahasā galantīm*
*vastrāñcalaṁ mama karān nijaṁ ākṣipantīm: mā meti roṣaparuṣaṁ bruvatīṁ smarāmi.*

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‘Even to-day do I see her, as, heedless of my falling at her feet to expiate my offence, she rushed away, flung off my hand from the hem of her garment, and in anger cried out, “No, never!”’

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*adyāpi tāṁ rahasi darpaṇaṁ īkṣamāṇāṁ: saṁkrāntamatpratinibhaṁ mayi pṛṣṭhalīne*
*paçyāmi vepathumatīṁ ca sasambhramāṁ ca: lajjākulāṁ samadanāṁ ca savibhramāṁ ca.*

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‘Even to-day I do see her secretly gazing at the mirror in which I was pictured while I stood behind her, all atremble and confused, utterly shamed between love and distraction.’

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*adyāpi tāṁ mayi samīpakavāṭalīne: manmārgamuktadṛçaṁ ānanadattahastām*
*madgotraliṅgitapadaṁ mṛdukākalībhiḥ: kiṁcic ca gātumanasaṁ manasā smarāmi.*

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‘Even to-day do I see her, as, head resting on her hand and eyes fixed on my path—though in truth I was hidden behind the door near by—she sought to sing in sweet tones a verse into which she had woven my name.’ The imitation of the *Meghadūta* is obvious, but elegant and attractive.

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*adyāpi tāṁ bhujalatārpitakaṇṭhapāçāṁ: vakṣaḥsthalaṁ mama pidhāya payodharābhyām*
*īṣannimīlitasalīlavilocanāntāṁ: paçyāmi mugdhavadanāṁ vadanaṁ pibantīm.*

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‘Even to-day do I see the fair arms that encircled my neck, when she clasped me close to her breast, and pressed her dear face against my own in a kiss, while her playful eyes half closed in ecstasy.’

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*adyāpi me varatanor madhurāṇi tasyā: yāny arthavanti na ca yāni nirarthakāni*
*nidrānimīlitadṛco madamantharāyās: tāny akṣarāṇi hṛdaye kim api dhvananti.*

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‘Even to-day here echo in my heart the words—sweet whether they bore meaning or not—of my fair one, when her eyes were shut in sleep and she was heavy with our love-play.’ It seems as if there were deliberate purpose in mentioning the princess’s rank in a verse with a distinct touch of humour, alluding as it does to the Indian fashion of addressing a man who sneezed with the words ‘Live on’:

Linked texts (3)

Caurapañcāśikā — Bilhaṇa, Sanskrit
Meghadūta — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit
Vikramāṅkadevacarita — Bilhaṇa, Sanskrit