Source of रघुवंश, from दिलीप to अग्निवर्ण.

[Arvind_Kolhatkar]

Dear Group,

The festival of विजयादशमी is just over.  In Maharashtra, it is associated with the custom of young boys and girls proffering leaves of the आपटा tree - Bauhinia racemosa - to the seniors. We are told that this custom has its origin in the story of कौत्स and रघु, where कौत्स has to give गु्रुदक्षिणा to his गु्रु and that offering leaves of the आपटा tree to senior persons represents the same act of गु्रुदक्षिणा.  In the oldest textbooks of Marathi, dating back to 1860's, there was even a small poem about this custom and three lines of that poem are still widely remembered:

सोने लुटुनी सायंकाळी मोरू परतुनि आला

बहीण काशी येउनि दारी ओवाळी त्याला.

दसरा सण मोठा, नाही आनंदा तोटा.

A version of the same story also appears in Canto V of रघुवंश.  The story, as narrated in रघुवंश,  is that कौत्स, upon completing his apprenticeship, was asked by his गुरु to bring as गु्रुदक्षिणा 14 crore pieces of gold coin.  कौत्स did not have such a large amount and he approached रघु, well-known for his charity and reputation of never sending back a supplicant empty-handed, to give him this amount.  Raghu did not have it in his treasury.  He decided to demand it from कुबेर and started war-like preparations to extract in from him.  कुबेर, unwilling to put up a fight against रघु, overnight poured out an amount much larger than 14 crore pieces of gold coin, into the treasury of रघु. (प्रातः प्रयाणाभिमुखाय तस्मै सविस्मयाः कोषगृहे नियुक्ताः । हिरण्मयीं कोषगृहस्य मध्ये वृष्टिं शशंसुः पतितां नभस्तः ॥ ५-२९॥) 

The story now current has a few details more than what रघुवंश tells us.  In the current story, कुबेर pours out a much larger amount, and that too, not into the treasury but on the आपटा tree.  From it, कौत्स is given what he needs and रघु asks the populace to take away the excess.  This represents the 'loot' in the popular story.  Giving of leaves of this tree by the young to the seniors represents गु्रुदक्षिणा.  Kalidasa does not mention any tree, in his version the wealth falls directly into the treasury.  There is also no mention in Kalidasa's version of any extra amount.

Hence my two queries.  These are:

1) Can any scholar here point to the origin of the story in any Purana, Mahabharata etc.?  How did the आपटा tree enter the story and where is the excess amount being carried away by the people mentioned?  

2) Kalidasa gives in all 29 names of the kings of the रघुवंश, from दिलीप to अग्निवर्ण, as Kings of the रघु Dynasty.  Where are all these names to be found in the ancient scriptures and what is Kalidasa's source of the whole story of रघुवंश?

I am sure someone here will have the answers.

Arvind Kolhatkar.

[Arvind_Kolhatkar]

I have found a partial answer to my question.

Probably, Kalidasa has taken the names of kings from Padma Purana.  There are two views on this.  Winternitz supports this view.  A book by Hardatta Sarma, "Padmapurana and Kalidasa', available at DLI, supports this view.  MM VV Mirashi in his 'Kalidasa' takes the opposite view.  According to him Padmapurana was composed after Raghuvansha was written and has borrowed the lineage from the latter.

In other words, the jury is still out ...

Arvind Kolhatkar.