extended far beyond what he has accomplished; he found allusions in the Dašakumāracarita to a scheme which would have related the history of the king Kämapäla and his five wives in three births, so that what we have is a mere fragment. The conjecture is based on a very slender ground, and there is nothing whatsoever of substantial nature to prove the hypo- thesis. Equally implausible is the suggestion that the Avanti- sundarikatha is the lost prelude to the Daśakumaracarita, which question we shall discuss later. H. H. Wilson made the conjecture that some of the disciples of Dandin filled in a sketch approved by the author and each one tried his hand and that possibly the longest and the one which made an approach in manner and diction to the work of the preceptor was finally accepted. The conjecture, though very ingenious, must be discarded in view of the existence of various versions of the pithikā, some of which are evidently late productions, and also because some manuscripts do not have them." In fact, Dandin did complete his work, and it appears that the work most probably contained a prelude, introducing the ten princes and describing their setting out for the quarter- conquest, Rājavāhana's parting from them to help Matanga, the princes' wandering about separately in search of Rajavahana and finally their re-union, followed by the tales of the ten princess in ten ucchvāsas and then a conclusion, describing their return to the capital and eventually their ruling over diffe- rent countries as feudatories of the sovereign, Rājavāhana. 1. See DKC p. 127; cp. Kale's notes thereon. 2. Cp. Keith, op. cit., p. 297 3. Cp. Agashe (op. cit., p. xxi) who mentions the surmise of Wilson and seems to give it his support. 4. Cp. HSL p. 210 fn. 5. G. H. Sastri (ASKS, intro., p. iii) says that Dandin's scheme of the story contained not ten but eleven boys. He thinks that PP has left out Devarakşita, the son of Satyaśarman, who was posted to watch the entrance of the cave which Rajavahana entered (cp. pt. III). The view, which is apparently based on the presumption that ASK is a prelude to DKC, is unwarranted; see below.
