अवन्तिसुन्दरीकथासारः /14

xii AVANTISUNDARI KÄĀTHAĀ SAĀRA
 

 
There are references in the work to the commercial and

colonizing activities that the east coast of India had with the

Far East. In the story of the birth of Pusṣpodbhava, his

father Ratnodbhava sails on the seas, and being ship-wrecked,

reaches the island of Kaālayavana or Yavana. There he

marries the daughter of a rich merchant, Kaālagupta; and the

merchant-guild elects him to be the ruler of the island.[^¹] Then

he returns home with his wife in ships loaded with valuables,

and his ships sink in the sea. His wife and nurse take shelter

in the Kalinga coast and he in an unknown island from which

he goes to the Bali island, in search of his wife. Again in the

story of Ripuñjaya, the merchant Potapa lands at Andhakaccha[^²
]
near Mahendra forest, with rich merchandise, after a voyage

over Mahodadhi (Bay of Bengal). He makes many Siddha-

yātrās or successful voyages in search of wealth, from

Dramilapaṭṭaṇa[^³] and takes valuable jewels to Candragupta

Maurya for sale and the latter addresses him as yavana-
ya
yātrika. Buhler identifies Kaālayavana with Zansibar on the

coast of Arabia; but from the above references it would

appear to be an island in the Far East.
 
xii
 

 
The work contains short accounts of the lives of Süūdraka,

Vararuci, Vyāḍi, Upavarşṣa and other historical and semi-

historical characters; but they differ from the accounts given

in the Brṛhatkathāmañjarī of Kşṣemendra and Kathāsaritsagara
āgara
of Somadeva, which are now held to be the Sanskrit renderings

of an enlarged version of the Brṛhatkathaā. As Dandin
ṇḍin
flourished about three centuries earlier than Kşemendra and
ṣemendra and
Somadeva, it is possible that he derived his themes from a

simpler and more genuine text of Gunṇāḍhya. Dandṇḍin's version

depicts Sūdraka as a historical rather than a legendary person.

Suūdraka, says Dandṇḍin, conquered the world by the clean edge

of his sword and captured men's minds by writing a book on

his own life. He was a Brahman named Indrāṇīgupta of the

Aśmaka country. He aspired for the majesty of a king

(Rājaśrī) and discarded the glory of a Brahman (Brahmaśrī);

and the learned people called Suūdraka. He worked his
way through a long series of dangers and fought with prince

way through a long series of dangers and fought with prince
Sväāti of the Andhra dynasty, a friend of his boyhood. In
 

 
[^1]. Av. p. 191.
 

[^2]. Av. p. 177.
 

[^3]. Kävirippattāvirippaṭṭinam or Puhäār, a port situated on the east
 

coast, at the mouth of the river Käveri,āveri.