A History of Sanskrit Literature c19.s2.4

c19.s2.4

There is much to prove that Budhasvāmin followed far more faithfully his original than the Kashmirian authors. Assuming that the *Çlokasaṁgraha* was written on the same scale throughout, it may have contained 25,000 verses, certainly an adequate number but not necessarily excessive. On the other hand, comparison of relevant portions of the work with the *Kathāsaritsāgara* shows that the latter is very greatly abridged in the vital parts of the narrative, those intimately connected with Naravāhanadatta. It is a reasonable conclusion, therefore, that the Kashmirian versions contain much added matter, especially the episodes which are merely in nominal connexion with the main story. This impression is certainly strengthened by the fact that the character of Madanamañcukā and her relations with Naravāhanadatta are much more coherently set out in the *Çlokasaṃgraha*; in the Kashmirian versions both her mother and herself are provided with royal connexions, Kaliṅgadatta and Madanavega, in order to spare us the discomfort of seeing a king marry a lady of the demi-monde. The bourgeois character of Gandharvadattā and her merchant father are similarly minimized in the Kashmirian version; they spare Ajināvatī, because she was a princess, but omit Priyadarçanā as being of middle-class origin. The *Çlokasaṃgraha* again in many details serves to explain obscurities in the Kashmirian version and to motive adequately incoherent episodes. On the other hand, it is fair to note that Budhasvāmin assumes that we know the tale of Udayana, and that we need not doubt that in the original *Bṛhatkathā* it was recognized, though Budhasvāmin preferred to confine his work to the adventures of Naravāhanadatta. From the paucity of his episodes we may fairly conclude that these were not over-numerous in the original, though it is impossible to stress this point.