ఉదయనోదయము/The Story of Udayana

by నారన సూరన

THE STORY OF UDAYANA

I udvaratna, Kalu-prapurna. DK NIDADAVOLI VENKATA RAO, MA

Udayanodayamu by Sunanarya son of Naranamatya, is a Prabandha of five aswasas in Telugu, dealing with the story of Udayana, also known as Vatsaraja. The celebrated King of Kausambi. This is perhaps the only work in Telugu literature that had for its theme the story of Udayana.

The life and deeds of Udayana have supplied material for several dramas to the poet Bhasa, and were referred to by Kalidasa in his Meghasandesa, as having become popular tales narrated by the old folk in Ujjaini.

We have a detailed account of Udayana and his life in Somadeva's Katha Saritsagaia, which is a later version of Gunadhya's Brihatkatha said to have been originally wutten in the Paisachi language. Two more works namely Brihatkatha-manjari by Kshemendra of the 11th century AD and Slokasangraha by Buddhaswamin, a Nepalese work assigned to the 8th on 9th century A D also give us some idea of the contents of Gunadhya's work. But Somadeva's work is considered a far better narrative than others, and seems to preserve better the main narrative into which other tales are fitted m, thus adding significance to its name as the ocean of the stream of stories This work is divided into 18 lambakas of which the 2nd narrates the story of Udayana as Kathamukha, i.e., the opening of the principal tale which is connected with his son Naravahanadatta, the hero of the theme, who marries a number of Vidyadhara ladies and is at last consecrated as the emperor of the world.

King Udayana is the Lord of Vatsa country with Kausambi as his capital and tisces his descent from Parikhsit of the family of Pandavas. His grandfather is Satanika and his father Sahasianika The latter married Mirgavati a celestial being born as a daughter of Kritavarma, King of Ayodhya While Udayana was in her womb, she was carried away by a vulture who mistook het form, made red on account of a bath in a crimson liquid, for a piece of flesh, and left her on the Udaya mountain near the hermitage of Jamadagni. There a son was born to her and he was named Udayana on that account and he grew under the care of Jamadagni and became proficient in all kinds of learning. Once, while hunting in the forest, he obtained a Veena, a never fading garland and two other presents from a Snake whose life he saved from the hand of a Sabara by offering hum the present of a bangle bearing the name of his father Sahasranika comes to know that his wife is safe in Udayadri through the Sabara who bungs the bangle for sale m the town. goes there and brings back his wife along with the son When the King on account of old age retired to the forest, Udayana became king with Yaugandharayana and Rumanvan as his ministers Leaving all the administrative affairs to his devoted ministers, he was amusing himself by playing on the flute Ghoshavati presented to him by the Snake, and attracting wild elephants into submission by the power of its music Chandasena King of Ujjaini wanted to give his daughter Vasavadatta in marriage to Udayana but he was not in good terms with him Knowing that Udayana was addicted to the amusement of catching wild elephants in the forest, he got him captured through the strategen of an artificial wild elephant and placed Vasavadatta under him to learn music from him. After a time, through another strategem played by Yaugandharayana for the deliverance of his master, he steals away from the city of Ujjain during the night along with Vasavadatia on an elephant, and after killing the guards and defeating the armies sent against him in a fight single-handed, makes his escape Later on, the king of Uyan sends his son to have the marriage of Udayana and Vasavadatta celebrated

Such is the main story of the 2nd lambaka of the Kathasaritsagara in which a few other stories, such as that of Lohajangha are inter-woven.

N Venkata Rao