हम्मीर महाकाव्यम् (रणथम्भौर चौहान वीरगाथा एवं इतिहास)

8

mean capacity, escape stepping. into that path which even poets
like Kâlidâsa² were not able to avoid ? But a poem that is replete
with good matter loses none of its value for a few common-
places of expression."
The poem begins, as is usual with Saṅskṛit authors, with invo-
cations addressed to several deities, and the author has been at
the pains of making the invocations seem applicable to both the
Hindu gods and some of the Tîrthaṅkaras of the Jainas. This
procedure calls for remark. Nayachandra Sûri, as his
name implies, is a Jain by persuasion, and his seeming to invoke
blessings at the hands of the most prominent members of the
orthodox Hindu pantheon is to be explained either by the freedom
of thought so characteristic of the age in which the author lived,
when the narrow and bigoted intolerance even of the Muslîm had
begun to appreciate the beauties of the allegorical language of the
Hindu popular religion, or by the strong desire of writing dvayartha
('having two meanings') verses, with which the author seems
possessed.³

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² Perhaps our author had in view the following lines of Dhanan-Jaya :—
अपशब्दशतं माघे भारवौ तु शतत्रयम् ।
कालिदासे न गण्यंते कवीरेको धनंजयः ॥
³ Probably everybody has heard of the Râghava Pâṇḍavîya Kâvya, every
line of which can be so construed as to apply to either Râma or the Pâṇḍavas,
at the option of the reader. I have recently been shown a Kâvya called the Sapta
Sandhâna Mahâkâvya, by Megha Vijaya Gaṇi, a learned Jain of recent times,
every verse of which can be made to apply alike to Râma, Kṛishṇa, and Jinendra.
In the present Kâvya the first śloka of the Nândî is addressed to the
Paramjyotis—'the divine flame,'—a manifestation of the divine being in whom
both Hindus and Jainas, especially the Kevali Jainas, believe. The second śloka
is addressed to Nâbhibhû, which may mean the Bramhâ of the Hindus, or the son
of Nâbhi (Ṛishabha Deva), the first Tîrthaṅkara of the Jainas. The third is
addressed to Śrî Pârśva, whom the Hindus may take for Vishṇu, the Jainas for Śrî
Pârśvanâtha, the 23rd Tîrthaṅkara. The 4th śloka is addressed to Śaṅkara
Vîravibhu, which may mean either Mahâdeva or Mahâvîra, the 24th Jain Tîrthaṅ-
kara. The fifth verse is addressed to Bhâsvân Saśânti, who may either stand
for the Sun, or Śânti, the 16th Jain Tîrthaṅkara. The sixth is addressed to
Samudra-Janman, which may be either the Moon, or Neminâth, son of Samudra,
the 22nd Jain Tîrthaṅkara.