The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v2.c30.s4.181

v2.c30.s4.181

Apart from all these military campaigns Bhoja is probably best remembered by his achievements in the domain of art and letters. The Udaipur *praśasti* calls him a king among poets (*kavirāja*),³ and states that 'he made the world worthy of its name by covering it all round with temples, dedicated to Kedāreśvara, Rāmeśvara, Somanātha, Sumḍīra (?), Kāla, Anala and Rudra.'⁴ Bühler has pointed out⁵ that his claim to literary merit is amply corroborated by the discovery of numerous works in poetics, astronomy, philosophy, architecture, and poetry which all bear the name of *Mahārājādhirāja* Bhoja and are said to have been written by him, no doubt with the assistance of the numerous scholars who flourished under his patronage. An analysis of the list of publications ascribed to Bhoja in Aufrecht's *Catalogus Catalogorum*⁶ shows that besides the above subjects there are other works on medicine, grammar, and lexicography which are attributed to the pen of the Paramāra king. It is true that all these works were probably largely written by the literary men living in his court; but a prince who had such wide sympathies and could inspire scholarship in so many varied fields of knowledge must ever remain a remarkable personality in the records of time. There is little evidence available to corroborate the extensive building operations which are ascribed to Bhoja in the Udaipur *praśasti*; but as Bühler has remarked 'it is very probable that a prince so fond of display as he was adorned his capital and perhaps even foreign sacred places with architectural monuments.' But of these, thanks no doubt largely to the iconoclastic zeal of the early Turkish conquerors, very few specimens have survived to our times.