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Importing Wikidata short description: "14th century collection of biographical narratives from India" (Shortdesc helper)

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{{short description|14th century collection of biographical narratives from India}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Prabandha-Chintamani
| title_orig = प्रबन्ध चिन्तामणि
| author = [[Merutunga]]
| country = [[India]]
| language = [[Sanskrit]]
| subject = Collection of biographical legends
| genre = [[prabandha]]
| pub_date = c. 1304 CE (1361 [[Vikrama Samvat|VS]])
}}
'''''Prabandha-Chintamani''''' ([[IAST]]: Prabandha-cintāmaṇi) is an Indian [[Sanskrit]]-language collection of ''[[prabandha]]s'' (semi-historical biographical narratives). It was compiled in c. 1304 CE, in the [[Vaghela dynasty|Vaghela kingdom]] of present-day [[Gujarat]], by [[Jainism|Jain]] scholar [[Merutunga]].{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=51}}

== Contents ==

The book is divided into five ''prakasha''s (parts):{{sfn|Vishnulok Bihari Srivastava|2009|p=279}}

# Prakasha I
#* [[Vikramaditya|Vikramarka]]
#* [[Shalivahana|Shatavahana]]
#* [[Vakpati Munja|Munja]]
#* [[Mularaja]]
# Prakasha II
#* [[Bhoja]] and [[Bhima I|Bhima]]
# Prakasha III
#* [[Jayasimha Siddharaja]]
# Prakasha IV
#* [[Kumarapala (Solanki king)|Kumarapala]]
#* Viradhavala
#* [[Vastupala]] and Tejapala
# Prakasha V
#* [[Lakshman Sen|Lakshmanasena]]
#* [[Jayachandra]]
#* [[Varahamihira]]
#* [[Bhartrihari]]
#* [[Vagbhata|Vaidya Vagabhatta]]

== Historical reliability ==

As a work of history, ''Prabandha-Chintamani'' is inferior to contemporary historical literature, such as the Muslim chronicles.{{sfn|A. K. Majumdar|1956|p=418}} Merutunga states that he wrote the book to "replace the oft-heared ancient stories which no longer delighted the wise". His book includes a large number of interesting anecdotes, but many of these anecdotes are fictitious.{{sfn|A. K. Majumdar|1956|p=417}}

Merutunga finished writing the book in c. 1304 CE (1361 [[Vikrama Samvat]]). However, while narrating historical incidents, he does not give much importance to contemporary period, of which he possessed direct knowledge. His book contains historical narratives from 940 CE to 1250 CE, for which he had to rely on oral tradition and earlier texts.{{sfn|A. K. Majumdar|1956|p=417}} Because of this, his book ended up becoming a collection of unreliable anecdotes.{{sfn|A. K. Majumdar|1956|p=418}}

Several contemporary or near-contemporary works of Gujarat do not mention any dates while narrating historical incidents. Merutunga perhaps realized that it was important to mention exact dates in writing history, and provides several dates in his ''Prabandha-Chintamani''. However, most of these dates are wrong by a few months or a year. It appears that Merutunga knew years of historical incidents from the earlier records, and fabricated the exact dates to make his work more believable.{{sfn|A. K. Majumdar|1956|p=418}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-0pAAAAAMAAJ|title=History of Gujarat|last=Rajyagor|first=S. B.|publisher=S. Chand & Company Ltd|year=1982|location=New Delhi|page=17|chapter=Chapter II: Source Materials of History of Gujarat|oclc=12215325}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sewell|first=Robert|date=1920|title=The Dates in Merutunga's "Prabandha Chintamani"|jstor=25209623|journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|issue=3|pages=333–341|issn=0035-869X}} {{closed access}}</ref> The text also features instances of [[anachronism]]; for example, [[Varahamihira]] (6th century CE) is described as a contemporary of a [[Nanda dynasty|Nanda]] king (4th century BCE).{{sfn|Moriz Winternitz|1996|p=500}}

Since the work was composed in Gujarat, it portrays the rulers of Gujarat positively, in comparison to the rival rulers of the neighbouring kingdom of [[Malwa]].{{sfn|Cynthia Talbot|2015|p=51}}

== Critical editions and translations ==

In 1888, Shastri Ramachandra Dinanatha edited and published ''Prabandha-Chintamani''. In 1901, [[Charles Henry Tawney]] translated it into English at the suggestion of [[Georg Bühler]]. Durgasankar Shastri revised Dinanatha's edition, and published it in 1932. [[Muni Jinvijay]] published another edition in 1933, and also translated the text into [[Hindi]] language.{{sfn|A. K. Majumdar|1956|p=418}}

== References ==
{{reflist|30em}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{ref begin}}
* {{cite book |author=A. K. Majumdar |title=Chaulukyas of Gujarat |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ffAdAAAAMAAJ |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |year=1956 |oclc=4413150 }}
* {{cite book |author=Cynthia Talbot |title=The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Cauhan and the Indian Past, 1200–2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m3DjCgAAQBAJ |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2015 |isbn=9781107118560 }}
* {{cite book |author=Moriz Winternitz |title=A History of Indian Literature: Buddhist literature and Jaina literature |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lgz1eMhu0JsC&pg=PA500 |year=1996 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-0265-0 }}
* {{cite book |author=Vishnulok Bihari Srivastava |title=Dictionary of Indology |year=2009 |publisher=Pustak Mahal |isbn=9788122310849 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eaCbv1NcbHwC }}
{{ref end}}

== External links ==

* ''[https://archive.org/stream/bibliothecaindi04indigoog#page/n7/mode/2up The Prabandhacintamani, or Wishing-stone of Narratives], composed by Merutunga-Acharya, translated into English by C. H. Tawney

[[Category:14th-century books]]
[[Category:Medieval Indian literature]]
[[Category:Works about monarchs]]
[[Category:Sanskrit literature]]

Prabandha-Chintamani - Revision history

imported>RAJIVVASUDEV: Importing Wikidata short description: "14th century collection of biographical narratives from India" (Shortdesc helper)