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INTRODUCTION
iii
found in the manuscript of Nāmasangrahamālā by one
Appaya Dikşita. As no better copy had been forthcoming,
a careful edition based on the two fragments was published in
the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, No. 172 (1954).¹
The Kathāsāra,¹ in the present edition too, incomplete but
better than the one issued in 1924. The work divides the run-
ning narrative of the original into paricchedas and carries it up
to Upahāravarman's intrigue with Kalpasundarī in the third
Ucchväsa of the Dasakumāra. The author tells us with com-
mendable modesty that he has no claim to literary finish and
that he recounts in a brief compass the story of the Avanti-
sundarī, for the love of telling good tales (I. 9-10). His
summary is in the main found to be faithful not only to the
Avantisundarī so far published but also to the Daśakumāra,
with a quarter of which it overlaps. It is written in a simple
style, indenting often on the words of the original. It is anonym-
ous and employs the word 'ananda' as a mark in the last
stanza of each canto. Bhoja in his Sṛngāraprakāśa says that
a poet called Pañcaśikha used the word 'ananda' as a mark in
the last stanza of each canto of his work Šūdrakakatha. The
Kathāsāra is obviously a different work and will remain
anonymous until further researches disclose the name of the
In the absence, however, of a complete original, it
will be a source of information, in regard to Dandin's prose
work.
author.
The Dasakumāra is a trunk without beginning or ending
and its very title is an anomaly. Dandin's original and the
Kathāsāra apply the term 'Kumāra' to the prince Rajavahana
alone. Even if it is taken in the sense of 'a boy' the title is a
misfit; for Dandin's scheme of the story contains not ten but
eleven boys, the prince and his ten companions. The
Purvapīṭhikā leaves out Devarakṣita, one of the companions,
the son of the pious Satyaśarman who leaves the Flower
City', his native land, and sets up a family in an agrahāra in the
Kaveri delta; it also personates Somadatta, the son of Brah-
madatta, the king's family priest, as the son of Satyavarman.
In Dandin's original as summarised by the Kathäsāra, Deva-
rakṣita figures as a watcher of the entrance of the cave through
which the prince enters the nether worlds. It appears that when
the earlier portion was not available and the Purvapithika was
1. For a detailed review of the Avantisundarī, see also Dr. V.
Raghavan, J. of the Travancore Uni. Mss. Library, v. VII, end.
iii
found in the manuscript of Nāmasangrahamālā by one
Appaya Dikşita. As no better copy had been forthcoming,
a careful edition based on the two fragments was published in
the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, No. 172 (1954).¹
The Kathāsāra,¹ in the present edition too, incomplete but
better than the one issued in 1924. The work divides the run-
ning narrative of the original into paricchedas and carries it up
to Upahāravarman's intrigue with Kalpasundarī in the third
Ucchväsa of the Dasakumāra. The author tells us with com-
mendable modesty that he has no claim to literary finish and
that he recounts in a brief compass the story of the Avanti-
sundarī, for the love of telling good tales (I. 9-10). His
summary is in the main found to be faithful not only to the
Avantisundarī so far published but also to the Daśakumāra,
with a quarter of which it overlaps. It is written in a simple
style, indenting often on the words of the original. It is anonym-
ous and employs the word 'ananda' as a mark in the last
stanza of each canto. Bhoja in his Sṛngāraprakāśa says that
a poet called Pañcaśikha used the word 'ananda' as a mark in
the last stanza of each canto of his work Šūdrakakatha. The
Kathāsāra is obviously a different work and will remain
anonymous until further researches disclose the name of the
In the absence, however, of a complete original, it
will be a source of information, in regard to Dandin's prose
work.
author.
The Dasakumāra is a trunk without beginning or ending
and its very title is an anomaly. Dandin's original and the
Kathāsāra apply the term 'Kumāra' to the prince Rajavahana
alone. Even if it is taken in the sense of 'a boy' the title is a
misfit; for Dandin's scheme of the story contains not ten but
eleven boys, the prince and his ten companions. The
Purvapīṭhikā leaves out Devarakṣita, one of the companions,
the son of the pious Satyaśarman who leaves the Flower
City', his native land, and sets up a family in an agrahāra in the
Kaveri delta; it also personates Somadatta, the son of Brah-
madatta, the king's family priest, as the son of Satyavarman.
In Dandin's original as summarised by the Kathäsāra, Deva-
rakṣita figures as a watcher of the entrance of the cave through
which the prince enters the nether worlds. It appears that when
the earlier portion was not available and the Purvapithika was
1. For a detailed review of the Avantisundarī, see also Dr. V.
Raghavan, J. of the Travancore Uni. Mss. Library, v. VII, end.