2023-02-23 18:48:30 by ambuda-bot
This page has not been fully proofread.
58
in Madhusudana's account. The Prabandhacintāmaṇi, which has
thoroughly confused the details of the story, in one version repre-
sents Mayūra as married to Bāṇa's sister, and in the other makes
Bāṇa out to be the husband of Mayūra's sister. It is, of course,
not unlikely that Mayūra may have given a daughter in marriage
to his friend, and some later discovery may prove the truth of
the Jaina record, but at present, in the light of the evidence we
have, the statement must be regarded as belonging to the class of
unproved possibilities. Nor, as regards other suggested ties of
relationship, can it be proved that Sanku was a son of Mayūra.
It is very likely that Mayura engaged in literary contests, for
besides the testimony of Jagannātha, to which we have already re-
ferred, and which makes him a victor at Benares, we have put
forward several allusions to affairs of this kind in which he is
said to have participated. For example, the statement of the
Samkṣepaśamkarajaya that he and Bāṇa were defeated in philo-
sophical discussion by Samkara, though in itself false, is prob-
ably based on the fact that the poets of Harsa's court were wont
to exhibit their literary prowess in public competition. Then,
too, the whole Jaina tale may preserve, under its guise of fable
and miracle, the record of some kind of contest in which the
popular religious systems of the age were championed by their
respective devotees. On such a hypothesis, Mayūra represented
the Säuras, or Sun-worshipers, with the Süryaśataka, Bāṇa, the
Säivites, with his Candiśataka, while Manatunga, with his
Bhaktāmarastotra, was added by the Jains for the glorification
of their religion. Though this theory of Peterson's, and the
assumption we have drawn from the statement of the Samkṣepa-
śamkarajaya, may seem to some too speculative, there is no good
reason for rejecting the testimony of Jagannatha that Mayūra
entered at least one contest, that at Benares, where he was victor.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
As regards the story of Mayura's affliction with leprosy, we are
compelled to acknowledge that the tale of his miraculous recovery
from that disease is probably not of Jaina origin, for it is re-
ferred to in the Kävyaprakāśa, which, as we saw above, antedates
by a century or more the Prabhāvakacaritra where the Jaina ac-
in Madhusudana's account. The Prabandhacintāmaṇi, which has
thoroughly confused the details of the story, in one version repre-
sents Mayūra as married to Bāṇa's sister, and in the other makes
Bāṇa out to be the husband of Mayūra's sister. It is, of course,
not unlikely that Mayūra may have given a daughter in marriage
to his friend, and some later discovery may prove the truth of
the Jaina record, but at present, in the light of the evidence we
have, the statement must be regarded as belonging to the class of
unproved possibilities. Nor, as regards other suggested ties of
relationship, can it be proved that Sanku was a son of Mayūra.
It is very likely that Mayura engaged in literary contests, for
besides the testimony of Jagannātha, to which we have already re-
ferred, and which makes him a victor at Benares, we have put
forward several allusions to affairs of this kind in which he is
said to have participated. For example, the statement of the
Samkṣepaśamkarajaya that he and Bāṇa were defeated in philo-
sophical discussion by Samkara, though in itself false, is prob-
ably based on the fact that the poets of Harsa's court were wont
to exhibit their literary prowess in public competition. Then,
too, the whole Jaina tale may preserve, under its guise of fable
and miracle, the record of some kind of contest in which the
popular religious systems of the age were championed by their
respective devotees. On such a hypothesis, Mayūra represented
the Säuras, or Sun-worshipers, with the Süryaśataka, Bāṇa, the
Säivites, with his Candiśataka, while Manatunga, with his
Bhaktāmarastotra, was added by the Jains for the glorification
of their religion. Though this theory of Peterson's, and the
assumption we have drawn from the statement of the Samkṣepa-
śamkarajaya, may seem to some too speculative, there is no good
reason for rejecting the testimony of Jagannatha that Mayūra
entered at least one contest, that at Benares, where he was victor.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
As regards the story of Mayura's affliction with leprosy, we are
compelled to acknowledge that the tale of his miraculous recovery
from that disease is probably not of Jaina origin, for it is re-
ferred to in the Kävyaprakāśa, which, as we saw above, antedates
by a century or more the Prabhāvakacaritra where the Jaina ac-