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THE MAYŪRĀṢṬAKA OF MAYŪRA¹
INTRODUCTION
The reader will probably remember that in one version of the
Jaina tale about Bāṇa, Mayūra, and Mānatunga, it is recorded
how Mayura once wrote, in verse, a licentious description of the
charms of his own daughter, Bāna's wife. The lady, enraged,
cursed her father, who, in consequence of the curse, became a
leper and was banished from court. One version of the legend,
namely, that given by the first anonymous commentator on the
Bhaktämarastotra, tells us that the name of this obnoxious poem
was the Mayurāṣṭaka.³ In the course of my study of the life and
writings of Mayūra, I noted that a poem of this name was listed
in Professor Garbe's catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts at
Tübingen University. Through the kindness of Professor
Garbe and of Dr. Geiger, the librarian at Tübingen, the manu-
script containing the Mayurāṣṭaka was forwarded to Professor
Jackson for my use. The material is birch-bark, folded in book
form, each leaf being 7 by 6 inches, with 16 lines of writing to a
full page. The writing is in the farada script, and the date should
probably be placed in the seventeenth century.5
1 This account and translation of the Mayürüşṭaka is here reprinted,
with some minor changes, from JAOS, vol. 31, p. 343-354, where I pub-
lished it in 1911, under the title, The Mayaraşṭaka, an unedited Sanskrit
poem by Mayüra.
2 See above, p. 25.
3 See above, p. 25.
Richard Garbe, Verzeichniss der indischen Handschriften der könig-
lichen Universitäts-Bibliothek, Tübingen, 1899, no. 182, F.
5 The ms, 182 F in Garbe's Verzeichniss (see note preceding), was one
of those purchased in 1894 by Marc Aurel Stein at Srīnagar in Kaśmir
(Verzeichniss, p. 3), and the date is according to the Saptarşi era (ibid.,
p. 5, n. 1; personal letter from Prof. Garbe, April 4th, 1911). At the end
of the Durgaştaka [one of the pieces in the collection contained in the
manuscript in question] the copyist gives the date (laukika) samvat 87,
69
INTRODUCTION
The reader will probably remember that in one version of the
Jaina tale about Bāṇa, Mayūra, and Mānatunga, it is recorded
how Mayura once wrote, in verse, a licentious description of the
charms of his own daughter, Bāna's wife. The lady, enraged,
cursed her father, who, in consequence of the curse, became a
leper and was banished from court. One version of the legend,
namely, that given by the first anonymous commentator on the
Bhaktämarastotra, tells us that the name of this obnoxious poem
was the Mayurāṣṭaka.³ In the course of my study of the life and
writings of Mayūra, I noted that a poem of this name was listed
in Professor Garbe's catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts at
Tübingen University. Through the kindness of Professor
Garbe and of Dr. Geiger, the librarian at Tübingen, the manu-
script containing the Mayurāṣṭaka was forwarded to Professor
Jackson for my use. The material is birch-bark, folded in book
form, each leaf being 7 by 6 inches, with 16 lines of writing to a
full page. The writing is in the farada script, and the date should
probably be placed in the seventeenth century.5
1 This account and translation of the Mayürüşṭaka is here reprinted,
with some minor changes, from JAOS, vol. 31, p. 343-354, where I pub-
lished it in 1911, under the title, The Mayaraşṭaka, an unedited Sanskrit
poem by Mayüra.
2 See above, p. 25.
3 See above, p. 25.
Richard Garbe, Verzeichniss der indischen Handschriften der könig-
lichen Universitäts-Bibliothek, Tübingen, 1899, no. 182, F.
5 The ms, 182 F in Garbe's Verzeichniss (see note preceding), was one
of those purchased in 1894 by Marc Aurel Stein at Srīnagar in Kaśmir
(Verzeichniss, p. 3), and the date is according to the Saptarşi era (ibid.,
p. 5, n. 1; personal letter from Prof. Garbe, April 4th, 1911). At the end
of the Durgaştaka [one of the pieces in the collection contained in the
manuscript in question] the copyist gives the date (laukika) samvat 87,
69