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A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s13.t2: The Campūs

A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s13.t2

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The Campūs

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The campūs form a particular type of kāvya. They are poetical compositions, in which verses in ornate metres and ornate prose are mixed up together without letting either metrical or the prosaic form prevail. Since even in prose fictions we find interspersed verses, and especially when even narrative works like the Pañcatantra etc. contain a large number of stanzas, they too can be designated prose works, in which verses are brought in always with some particular objective : they are either epigrams or brief synopsis of a story, or they serve to bring an important moment of a story into prominence. On the other hand the campū is a particular type of literature, in which verses do not serve any purpose other than what is served by prose. Hence they can neither be called epic nor prose fictions. The Buddhist Jātakamālā¹ proves that the campū is quite an old type of ornate poetry. But even Hariṣeṇa's panegyric (praśasti) on King Samudragupta, contained in an inscription of about 345 A. D., can be referred to as an old example of campū.² Nevertheless the campūs, that we possess, are mostly recent works of little poetical value.

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¹ See above II, 212 ff.; transl. 273.

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² See above, p. 41 and Bühler, Die indischen Inschriften und das Alter der indischen Kunstpoesie, p. 31 ff. According to Gawroński, The Digvijaya of Raghu and connected problems, p. 15 ff., this inscription had served as a model for Kālidāsa's Raghuvaṁśa. In Festschrift Windisch, p. 170 ff. Gawroński has tried to determine its date.

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Probably the most famous work of this type is the Nalacampū or the Damayantī kathā³ of the poet Trivikramabhaṭṭa, from whom we have an inscription dated 915 A.D.⁴. Here the Nala-story has has once more been narrated in an ornate style. The two great epics have been reproduced in the campūs. There is one Rāmāyaṇa campū (or Campūrāmāyaṇa⁵) of king Bhoja and Lakṣmaṇabhaṭṭa and on: Bharatacampū⁶ (in 12 *stabakas*) of the poet Ananta. In the 16th century (under Akbar the Great) a poet Kṛṣṇa or Śeṣa Śrīkṛṣṇa wrote one Pārijātaharaṇacampū and one Mandāramarandacampū⁷. A "swift poetry" is also the Svāhāsudhākaracampū, written in the 16th century, in which the poet Nārāyaṇabhaṭṭa tells the love-story of the Moon with Svāhā, the wife of Agni¹. Further in the 18th century in the Śaṅkaracetovilāsacampū of a poet Śaṅkara, the deeds of king Cetasimha have been described².

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³ Edited with commentary in Bombay NSP 1885.

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⁴ He is the son of Nemāditya of the Śāṇḍilya gotra. Cf. D. R. Bhandarkar, Ep. Ind. 9, p. 28. There lived one later Trivikrama, who was also of the same Śāṇḍilyagotra, who was a forefather of the astronomer Bhāskara; see Kielhorn, Ep. Ind. 1, 340.

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⁵ Edited with commentary in Bombay NSP 1907. Cf. Peterson, 3 Reports 361 f.; Burnell, Tanjore, p. 161.

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⁶ Printed in Madras and popular in South India, see Burnell, Tanjore p. 160.

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⁷ Edited in Km. 14, 1889 and 52, 1895.

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¹ Edited in Km., Part IV, pp. 52-58. Pischel, HL., p. 29, compares Homer's description of the love of Ares and Aphrodite (Od. p. 266 ff.). The same Nārāyaṇa is also the author of Nārāyaṇīya, see above p. 140. On "Quick Poetry" i.e. the poetry in which events take place very quickly, is written in a harriedly short time. See Pischel, HL. p. 26 f. Many poeticians say that they have composed their manuals "as best" as "quick poetry".

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² According to Aufrecht, Bodl. Cat. 121 f. the poem may have been written in between 1771 and 1778 A. D. One Ānanda-vṛndāvana-campū of Karṇapūra has been edited in the Pandit, Vols. 9 and 10 and N. S. Vols. 1-3, One Śrīnivāsa campū of Veṅkaṭeśa (with a commentary) has been edited in the Km. 33, 1893. On the Jaina campū Yaśastilaka of Somadeva and Jīvandhara-campū of Hemacandra, see above II, 336 f., trans. p. 534.

Cites (13)