Part II. The Author in Context
4. Śakaṭāla
The False Nanda: Avantisundarī
The Avantisundarī gives a very concise account, beautiful in its simplicity, of the exceedingly popular story of the false Nanda. The relevant part107 begins with three tal-ented brāhmaṇs called Vararuci, Vyāḍi and Indradatta,108 whose teacher asks them for some gold as his fee for imparting knowledge on them. However, King Mahāpadma109 has hoarded up practically all the gold in the world, so the three graduates decide to petition him for some. Precisely at this time Mahāpadma manages to scrounge the last piece of gold left outside his treasury (having offered his daughter in exchange for it), and dies of ex-citement. To salvage the situation, Indradatta performs magic (yoga) to take possession of the dead king’s body,110 pretends a miraculous recovery, and then gives Vararuci the gold they need. However, the problem-solving minister Āryaka realises what has happened and orders the abandoned body of Indradatta burned.111
The Jaina Ārādhanā Literature
Another relevant segment of kathā literature belongs to a Jaina stream of tradi-tion distinct from the scriptural commentaries examined above. This traditradi-tion is repre-sented by collections of tales of which the earliest and perhaps most important is the San-skrit Bṛhatkathākośa112 of Hariṣeṇa, completed in 931 CE (CHATTERJEE 1945:608). These tales are associated with the Bhagavatī Ārādhanā or Mūlārādhanā,113 a text in Prakrit verse that is not canonical, but the fact that it is preserved both in the Śvetāmbara and the Digambara schools attests its antiquity (WARDER 1992:235). Its verses deal with the process of prepara-tion for death, and are meant to be illustrated by a large number of anecdotes which may once have formed part of written commentaries now lost. The Bṛhatkathākośa (also called Ārādhanākathākośa) is a collection of these tales without the actual commentary, but a sim-ilar collection, the Apabhraṃśa Kahakosu of Śrīcandra (11th century or later) refers each
107 Avantisundarī p. 182–183; the antecedents are told on pp. 179ff.
108 Vararuci is identified here and elsewhere with Kātyāyana, the author of an elaboration (vārttika) of Pāṇini’s grammar. A great Prakrit grammar is also attributed to him. The name Vyāḍi is also attested elsewhere as that of a grammarian (TRAUTMANN 1971:35). In the Kashmiri version of this story (for which see page 119) Pāṇini himself appears too, as a stupid classmate of Vararuci, who receives divine knowledge of
grammatics through Śiva’s grace.
109 Actually the divine treasurer of Kuvera, incarnated as the son of the previous king, Mahānandin.
110 The Mahāvaṃsa-ṭīkā also has a similar story, but here it is Candragupta’s dead body that is reanimated by a yakṣa.
111 There are lacunae in the text of the Avantisundarī around here, and the account is rather laconic to begin with. From other versions of the story (see page 119) it is clear that the minister believes any king to be better than no king at all and wants to keep the pretender on the throne until the true king’s heir comes of age.
112 Note that the Bṛhatkathākośa is not (directly) related to the Bṛhatkathā (for which see page 118): it is a bṛhat-kathākośa, a “great inventory of tales,” not a Bṛhatkathā-kośa, an “inventory of the Great Tale.”
113 The author of the Mūlārādhanā was Śivakoṭi, who may have lived in the first century CE and claims to rely on an older and more voluminous text (SONI 2014:1–2).
tale to a particular verse of the Mūlārādhanā (ibid.).114 Some of these tales were also pre-served in an old (perhaps early 10th-century, ibid. 236) Kannaḍa text, the Vaḍḍārādhane.115
Śakaṭāla Forgets His Revenge: Bṛhatkathākośa 157
Chapter 157 of the Bṛhatkathākośa tells a tale about the “zombie Nanda” very sim-ilar to that of the Avantisundarī. Here four brāhmaṇs (called Vararuci, Namuci, Bṛhaspati and Indradatta) come to king Nanda (he has no other name) to beg for a thousand cows all of the same colour to give to their teacher as his fee. Arriving at court, they find Nanda dead (for no other reason than that his time was up116), so Namuci (not Indradatta) by es-oteric knowledge (vidyā) takes possession of his body and gives the required cows to his comrades. Their teacher, when he learns how they came by the cows, curses them, but for the time being they remain alive and well, the other three serving Namuci in the body of
“Yogānanda.”117 There is no mention of the burning of the abandoned body; however, Śakaṭāla (appearing without any introduction) tries to get the fake king drunk in hopes that he will inadvertently reveal himself as an impostor.118 For his efforts, he gets impris-oned along with his hundred sons and given meagre rations to subsist on.119
Later on the king pardons Śakaṭāla because he needs his help solving a legal prob-lem, and Śakaṭāla bides his time acting friendly but waiting for an opportunity to take revenge.120 Interestingly, his retribution never materialises in this story which is, after all, a didactic Jaina tale about mental preparation for death, not revenge. Later on, Śakaṭāla insinuates to the king that Vararuci is cuckolding him, whereupon Vararuci goes into hid-ing with the help of some servants, who kill another man in his stead. He is, however, restored to his position when his help is needed in solving a riddle involving the false Nanda’s son Sunanda, who in the company of a bear climbs a tree to escape from a tiger, and at night throws the sleeping bear down to the lion in to buy his own life.
114 CHATTERJEE (1945:608–609) notes two further collections, the Ārādhanākathākośa of Nemidatta, composed in the 16th century in Sanskrit, and the Prakrit (Apabhraṃśa) Ārādhanāsatkathāprabandha of Prabhācandra written sometime in the intervening period.
115 See UPAHDYE 1943:63–72 for a detailed discussion of the Vaḍḍārādhane and further references.
116 Bṛhatkathākośa 157.30, kālagocaratāṃ prāpto.
117 Obviously a mistake for Yogananda, see page 119.
118 At least that is the best sense I can make of the text: Bṛhatkathākośa 157.40, evaṃ hi tiṣṭhatāṃ teṣāṃ madyaṃ doṣāvahaṃ nṛṇām| yogānandaparīkṣārthaṃ śakaṭālena pāyitaḥ|| (yogānandaparīkṣārthaṃ should probably be emended to yoganandaḥ parīkṣārthaṃ). WARDER (1992:45) merely says, “Śakaṭāla tried to investigate.”
119 The details of his prison sentence are again vague and corrupt. Bṛhatkathākośa 157.41, nandenāpi ca ruṣṭena śarāvaṃ bhaktipūritam| evaṃ dine dine sārdhaṃ kāṃjikena prayacchatā|| ghanāndhakārasaṃyukte cāṇḍakāre bhayānake| śatena saha putrāṇāṃ śakaṭālo nidhāpitaḥ|| Upadhye proposes emending cāṇḍakāre to caṇḍāgāre, but in view of the other versions of the story (see note 125 below and note 132 on page 116), I believe cāndhakūpe would be more likely even if it involves more invasive surgery. The word bhakti should also be emended to bhakta; (again see note 132 for a parallel).
120 Bṛhatkathākośa 157.49, nandopari ruṣaṃ dhṛtvā chidrānveṣī divāniśam| bhasmagūḍhāgnivat tasthau śakaṭālaḥ priyaṃvadaḥ||
Near the end of the account a saint called Mahāpadmasūri121 visits Pāṭaliputra, and under his influence Śakaṭāla becomes a Jaina ascetic. Vararuci, who still harbours hate for Śakaṭāla, devises a trick to bring Śakaṭāla into the palace to beg for food. The minister-turned-mendicant eats and leaves, whereupon Vararuci tells the king that Śakaṭāla has entered the palace and under pretext of begging, he has slept with the queens.122 The en-raged (false) Nanda orders Śakaṭāla’s death, and when the latter hears of the sentence, he commits Jaina ritual suicide.123 Nanda is overcome with regret on learning that Śakaṭāla had been faultless, and converts to Jainism.
Feuding Ministers: Pariśiṣṭaparvan 7 and 8
The Pariśiṣṭaparvan of Hemacandra also contains stories about Nanda’s ministers.
In Canto 7 the first of the Nandas (called simply Nanda) is a commoner of despicable ori-gins: the son of a courtesan by a barber. He has a dream which his guru interprets to mean that he will become king, and when King Udāyin dies without a successor, the royal insig-nia miraculously pay homage to him, marking him out for kingship. An exceedingly clever young man called Kalpaka becomes his minister. An anonymous former councillor124 leads the king to believe that Kalpaka is planning to usurp the throne, whereupon Nanda casts Kalpaka and his family into an oubliette125 on meagre rations. The family decide that Kalpaka alone should eat the food and live to take revenge on the evil minister.126 The king later restores Kalpaka when rebellious vassals threaten the capital. The minister of course deals with the rebels, and the king imprisons the treacherous ex-minister.
Canto 8 of the Pariśiṣṭaparvan127 continues the tale with yet another ministerial feud, in which a minister named Śakaṭāla does take revenge on his rival. Nanda and Kalpaka are followed by eight generations of kings and hereditary ministers, descendants of Kalpaka. The minister of the ninth Nanda is Śakaṭāla, a zealous Jaina. Vararuci, a brāhmaṇ poet and scholar, wins the king’s favour and has an increasingly bitter rivalry
121 Recall that Mahāpadma is the name of Nanda in the Purāṇic version.
122 Bṛhatkathākośa 157.137, bhuktvā te ’ntaḥpuraṃ sarvaṃ niryayau tvadgṛhād ayam.
123 See SONI 2014:12 for a discussion of this element of the story.
124 Pariśiṣṭaparvan 7.85, prāgmantrī.
125 Pariśiṣṭaparvan 7.98, andhakūpakārāyām. The term andhakūpa, literally “blind well,” is remarkably persistent, found in almost all versions of the story. I interpret it as an oubliette, a particular kind of underground cell that opens only from above. (Here, the word kārā may have been added to make it clear that this is not an actual well but a prison cell.) Remarkably, in the Vaḍḍārādhane Kāpi casts the dead king’s body in a dried-up well, so being in turn cast down such a well would be fitting punishment for him. The summary of this story presented by WARDER (1992:246) speaks only of Kāpi and his family being “incarcerated in a
dungeon;” I assume Warder would have pointed out if the text had used the same expression here as at the disposal of the body. There is no other version of the tale (that I am aware of) in which the minister throws the king’s body into a well, though Ananta’s preamble (page 125) and the anonymous Bikaneri story (page 128) come very close.
126 Note first that this event is not mentioned in the parallel episode of Bṛhatkathākośa 157; and second that in most other versions (see below) the object of revenge is the king, not a rival minister.
127 This account is also presented in the Uttarajjhayana-ṭīkā 2.17 (JACOBI 1932:326–335). Details are largely identical; the Apabhraṃśa forms of the names of the actors are Kappaga, Sagaḍāla, Vararui and Siriyaa.
with Śakaṭāla, which culminates in Vararuci insinuating to the king that Śakaṭāla is plan-ning to dethrone him and make his own son, Śrīyaka, king. The episode ends with Śakaṭāla taking poison and then being beheaded by Śrīyaka (to liberate his son both from the sin of murder and the suspicion of treason). Śrīyaka becomes Nanda’s prime minister, and plots revenge against Vararuci who is at long last made to drink molten lead and dies. The chap-ter does not end here; instead, the tale of Cāṇakya begins abruptly.128
Cross-Fertilisation
Early stories of Cāṇakya and Candragupta were in my opinion cross-fertilised with tales of a minister’s revenge on the false Nanda. The former had probably already grown from a more or less historical core into fancy tales incorporating the adventures of the genius and the youngster before and after the success of their campaign. The latter, if they ever did have a historical core, had probably been about a different Nanda than the one dethroned by Candragupta, but by the time this cross-fertilisation took place, any King Nanda would have belonged to the realm of fable rather than memory.
Perceived gaps in the core Cāṇakya narrative—namely: why he ended up destroy-ing Nanda, why he came into contact with the kdestroy-ing in the first place, and how he managed to do it—would have been filled in with material from the Nanda tales. Why do brāhmaṇ ministers normally destroy Nanda rulers? Because the king has humiliated them, as had been the case with Śakaṭāla (and his alter egos). And why do brāhmaṇs who are not yet ministers meet Nanda rulers? They come to them to mooch some of their fabulous wealth, as Indradatta and his companions had. And if one brāhmaṇ can magically resurrect a dead king to obtain that donation, surely another one can kill, magically or otherwise, a live king who has not only rebuffed his request but also humiliated him.
The interaction of the tales of the Śakaṭāla cycle and the Cāṇakya cycle did not, however, stop at this first cross-fertilisation. The next chapter will examine the following stage of the story’s evolution, where the story of Cāṇakya’s revenge becomes a subplot in the tale of Śakaṭāla’s revenge.
128 See page 107.