A History of Sanskrit Literature c19.s4.6

c19.s4.6

Two other points at once stand out revealing the defect of the original Kashmirian recension. The break between the end of Velā (viii) and the continuation in Pañca (xiii) is lamentable; but its harshness is concealed in some measure by making the intervening books recognize the plight of the prince and the endeavour to console him during his search. Evidently it was thus that the compilers of the Kashmirian recension hoped to work in not too awkwardly their extra matter, and in a sense they succeeded. The same thing cannot be said regarding the interpolation of Books xiv–xvi between Pañca and the book of triumph and consecration. The break is ludicrous; Naravāhanadatta, who is left at the end of Pañca as accepted as lord by the great majority of the Vidyādharas, but who has Mandaradeva still to overcome, is now treated for three books as a prince in the home of his father, without any consciousness of his great adventures or his imperial dignity in the land of the Vidyādharas. Here the compiler had evidently not the skill to make even a passable transition, and Kṣemendra loyally followed his incoherence. This is conclusive evidence against the original *Bṛhatkathā* ever having contained this material; no author would permit himself such confusion, while a compiler could easily slip into it when he desired to knit together varying cycles of legend.