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Vasantavilas
Vasantavilas is a fagu poem by unknown author written in old Gujarati language, believed to be written in first half of the 14th-century. Its theme is the depiction of Shringara, an erotic sentiments. The poem has a significant historical value as it provides linguistic evidence of Old Gujarati.
Overview
Gujarati scholar Keshav Harshad Dhruv first discovered an illustrated manuscript of the Vasantavilas copied in 1455, and published it in Shalapatra. The published version seemed unsatisfied to him as the version needed many editing, he published it again with notes in Haji Muhammad Smarak Granth (1923). In the meanwhile, he found another manuscript from the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune, and with its help, he re-edited the text. In 1943, another scholar Kantilal B. Vyas published another carefully edited edition of the poem, which aroused interest among scholars in India and abroad. Vyas published its English translation in 1946.
Authorship and dates
The colophon of all manuscripts have no details about the author, but according to some scholars the poem was composed by Muni Deva, uncle of Someshvardeva, the royal priest of last Chaulukya king Vastupal. This assumption is based on the discussion in Girvan Vasantiki (Descripation of Spring in Sanskrit Literature). The last verse (Munja vayan ini thai) of the poem referenced to Munja also support this hypothesis.
The fact is uncertain that whether the writer of this poem was a Jain or non-Jain. No mention found in any of the manuscripts. After analyzing the opinions of other scholars and considering the evidence provided by the text itself K. B. Vyas concluded that this is not the work of a Jain, but probably of someone belonging to one of the Brahmanical sects. He sets the date of composition somewhere around V.S. 1400-1425 (1343- 1368 A.D.), basing his decision upon the orthography of the manuscripts and his comparison of the phonology and the morphology of the text with linguistic specimens from the different periods of Old Gujarati.
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Structure
There are two texts are available of Vasantavilas. First is consist of 52 stanzas while other have 84 stanzas. As the author seems to be a well versed and genuine lover of poetry and beauty, he quoted many Sanskrit and Prakrit verse of renowned poets in this poem.Its metrical form is 'upadohaka', a variety of Doha, a medieval poetic meter. Thematically the poems are divided into two parts. The first part consist of 1 to 45 stanzas which narrates 'separation of couples', and the second part consist of 46 to 84 and it deals with 'union of couples'.
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