Vasudevavijaya of Vasudeva (Study)
by Sajitha. A | 2018 | 50,171 words
This page relates ‘Shricihnakavya of Krishnalilashuka and Durgaprasadayati’ of the study on the Vasudevavijaya of Vasudeva from the 11th century A.D. The Vasudevavijayam is an educational poem belonging to the Shastra-Kavya category of technical Sanskrit literature. The Vasudevavijayam depicts in 657 verses the story of Lord Krishna while also elucidates the grammatical rules of the Ashtadhyayi of Panini (teaching the science of grammar). The subject-content of the poem was taken from the tenth Skandha of the Bhagavatapurana.
Śrīcihnakāvya of Kṛṣṇalīlāśuka and Durgāprasādayati
[Full title: Kerala Contribition to Śāstrakāvya Tradition (5): Śrīcihnakāvya of Kṛṣṇalīlāśuka and Durgāprasādayati]
The Śrīcihnakāvya is an important Śāstrakāvya illustrating Prakrit grammar. The work comprises 12 chapters. The first eight chapters are composed by Kṛṣṇalīlāśuka. He flourished in the latter half of the 13th century and first half of the 14th century. He is generally identified with the author of Kṛṣṇakarṇāmṛta. The last four chapters are added by his disciple Durgāprasādayati and it is said that he was lived at Agatiyur near Kunnamkulam. The first part of the poem is named as Govindābhiṣeka by the author Kṛṣṇalīlāśuka. As the last verse in each canto employs the word śrī, the work has known by the name Śrīcihna. Durgāprasādayati also wrote a commentary to the whole portion viz. Bhaktivilāsa.
The theme of the work is the ceremonial bath of Govinda and itis taken from the first 27 cantos of the tenth skandha of Śrīmadbhāgavata. Līlāśuka narrates the Bhāgavata story till Govarddhanoddhāraṇa and he illustrates the sūtras of Prākṛtaprakāśa in the first 8 cantos. Here Līlāśuka tries to describe the importance of Mahārāṣṭrī Prakrit. The first canto illustrates the sūtras of the first Pariccheda of Prākṛraprakāśa. There after each canto comprises the sūtras of each Pariccheda respectively.
Durgāprasādayati gives examples for the Prakrit sūtras of Trivikrama in the last four cantos. In these cantos he narrates the story of Kṛṣṇa upto the Svargārohaṇa. The author illustrates only 149 sūtras of Trivikrama out of 1086 sūtras.
Changes in vowels, consonants and conjugations are the subject matter dealt within the first three cantos. Sandhi, Kṛtpratyayas and rules regarding anusvāras are included in the fourth canto. Nouns, pronouns and numerals etc. in the fifth and various forms of roots in the sixth are described. The Prakrit roots instead of Sanskrit are described in the seventh canto. The eighth canto illustrates various kinds of Nipātas.
Ninth canto describes the sūtras of the first pāda of the first chapter of Trivikrama’s Prākṛtasūtras. Second pāda in the tenth canto and the third pāda of first chapter and the first and second pāda of the second chapter are explained in the 11th canto. The last canto illustrates the second, third and fourth pādas of the second chapter and first and second pādas of the third chapter.