‘ चम्पू काव्यानि ’ (Champu Kavyani)

          

The origin of Champu Kavyas is traced by some scholars to the primitive prose style in which descriptive verses were introduced here and there. The tales of Buddhists in Pali language have artless prose lines mixed up with beautiful verses. In course of time the prose style was improved to match the beautiful verses and thus the Champu Kavyas must have come into existence.

Others traced the origin of Champu Kavyas to the simultaneous existence of the two types of literature prose and poetry, both dealing with the same kind of subject matter. These two types must have got mixed up at a later stage and such mixed works were treated in course of time as a separate branch of literature. It is also quite possible that some prose writers introduced beautiful verses in their works. Gradually more and more verses were introduced into the prose works and they were treated as a separate class called Champu Kavyas. ‘diNDna\’ (Dandin) of 7^th century A.D. defines Champu Kavyas as a mixure of prose and poetry in the following lines in his Kavyadarsha: ‘gaVpVmayaI kaicat\ campUir%yaiBaQaIyato’.He also refers to some Champu Kavyas but no Champu written during his period or earlier is now available.

‘i~ivaËmaBa+:’ (Trivikramabhatta): The ‘dmayantIkqaa’ (DamayantiKatha) or ‘nalacampU’ (NalaChampu) written by ‘i~ivaËmaBa+:’ (Trivikramabhatta) is the oldest Champu known to us. He is also mentioned as the author of ‘madalasacampU’. ‘i~ivaËmaBa+:’ must be assigned to the 10^th Century A.D. as he is known to have composed the inscription of Indra III – the Rashtrakuta King in 915 A.D. ‘dmayantIkqaa’ (DamayantiKatha) is an incomplete work. It consists of 7 chapters. There is a tradition concerning the origin of this work. When once the poet’s father ‘dovaaid%ya:’ (Devaditya) was absent from the court of his patron, a rival poet offered a challenge and ‘i~ivaËmaBa+:’ was asked to accept the challenge. Taking up the challenge he composed ‘nalacampU’ (NalaChampu) extempore with the blessings of Goddess Saraswati. As his father arrived in the middle he had to discontinue his work. This work suffers from the defects of long compounds and lengthy descriptions. He indulges in the play of double meanings. Hence this is not much appreciated by the scholars.

‘saaomadova:’ (Somadeva): ‘yaSaistlakcampU’ (Yasastilaka Champu) is known to have been written by ‘saaomadova:’ (Somadeva) in 959 A.D. The author was a Jain and he wrote the work with the definite purpose of upholding and spreading Jain Code of morality and ethics as the only road to salvation.‘maaird<a:’ (Maridatta), a sensual king on the advice of his priest performs a sacrifice in which a pair of each class of living beings is to be killed. Two ascetics – a boy and a girl, who are in fact the twin children of the King’s own sister, appeal before him and narrate how in the previous birth they sacrificed an effigy of a cock and how even for that they had to suffer untold miseries. On hearing this, the King shudders at the thought of his sacrifice and converts with all his relatives and subjects to the Jain faith.

There are plenty of moral and ethical sentiments in this work which makes it more a didactic composition than a literary work. It consists of 8 chapters.

‘Baaoja:’ (Bhoja: The ‘ramaayaNacampU’ (Ramayana Champu) or ‘BaaojacampU’ (Bhoja Champu) is popularly ascribed to the King Bhoja. The King is identified by a tradition with the King of Dhara who ruled between 1018 and 1063 A.D. There is an incredible tradition which connects Kalidasa as an associate author of this work with Bhoja. The story goes like this. Bhoja and Kalidasa are very good friends. Bhoja wanted to hear his Carama Sloka (a verse composed after the death of a person) from Kalidasa. But Kalidasa refused to do it as it would bring death to Bhoja and he disappeared from the scene. In order to see Kalidasa once again Bhoja spread a rumour that the King was dead. Immediately Kalidasa had surfaced and sang the Carama Sloka thinking the King to be dead. This really caused the King to lose his life. But before his he wanted to write a book along with Kalidasa. So they started writing ‘ramaayaNacampU’. Bhoja is said to have written the prose portions and Kalidasa the verse portions. This story created confusion as Kalidasa must have lived well before 6^th C.A.D. whereas Bhoja lived in 11^th C.A.D. In that case how can these two write a book together?

            Bhoja has composed only up to the end of Sundara Kanda. A later poet by name Lakshmana Kavi wrote the YudhaKanda. In this work Bhoja employs all varieties of metres and the prose version is full of long compounds. The verses are Vaidarbhi style. The poetic sentiments and the descriptions of nature are a feast to the scholars. This Champu is very popular among the lovers of Ramayana literature.

 ‘AnantBa+:’ (Anantabhatta): The ‘BaartcampU’ (Bharata Champu) of ‘AnantBa+:’ (Anantabhatta) of uncertain date is a work in 12 chapters summing up briefly the story of Mahabharatam. It has a fairly wide vocabulary and a great variety of metres, which have made it a popular book. The popularity of this Champu is also due to the fact that it is a handy work of the elaborate epic. The author has also composed a ‘BaagavatcampU’ (Bhagavata Champu) which he is supposed to have written to compete with one Abhinava Kalidasa, who also wrote a Champu of the same title. Narayana Bhattatiri of Kerala, who was the famous author of ‘naarayaNaIyama\’ (Narayaniyam) quotes frequently from Anantabhatta’s Champu. Therefore the age of Anantabhatta could not be later than the close of 15 the C.A.D. for Narayana Bhattatiri is said to have lived between 1560 A.D. and 1646 A.D.