A History of Sanskrit Literature c3.8

c3.8

The fragments shed a very interesting light on the development of the style of prose mingled with verses which appears in a more elaborate form in the *Jātakamālā*. The narratives, eighty in number, which, with ten parables, make up the work, begin with the enunciation of some doctrine, which is then established by means of an appropriate narrative; unlike the *Jātakamālā*, the text does not follow a stereotyped plan of drawing out at the close of each tale the moral which it inculcates. The stanzas used are normally portions of the speeches of the dramatis personae; there is a complete breach with the tradition of the canonical texts which introduce such verses by the term *bhāṣāṃ bhāṣate*; but of course this does not mean that Kumāralāta, or Ārya Çūra who follows this plan in the *Jātakamālā*, is the author of all the verses used; doubtless he often adopts or adapts current maxims. Narrative¹ or descriptive stanzas are rare, and they are marked out for the benefit of the reciter by the words *vakṣyate hi*. Ārya Çūra, on the other hand, shows a distinct advance; he uses descriptive or narrative stanzas to the extent of over a fifth of his total number of verses, and omits any introduction, inserting them freely to beautify his prose narration. The parables take a different form: in them a prose parable (*dṛṣṭānta*) is simply followed by a prose exposition (*artha*). The language shows the same adherence to correct Sanskrit, with occasional lapses, as in Açvaghoṣa, and there is a rich variety of metres, including the earliest Āryās in Kāvya so far datable with reasonable certainty; the Çloka, Upajāti, Vasantatilaka, and Çārdūlavikrīḍita are affected. Very important is the fact that Prākrit lyric written in the Prākrit of the grammarians (Middle Prākrit) is preluded in two Prākrit Āryās, written in Old Çaurasenī, which already manifest that affection for long compounds which is carried to excess in the *Gaüḍavaha*.