A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s1.14

c19.s1.14

Trivikrama Bhaṭṭa, contemporary with Rāshṭrakūṭa Indra III (915), was the author of *Nalacampū* or *Damayantī-kathā*, the earliest extant Campū in Sanskrit. The story is that the work was composed with the aid of Sarasvati to meet the challenge of a rival at a time when his father, a court-poet, was absent. It is said to have been left unfinished because the father returned and rendered the son's effort otiose. Both verse and prose are no more than mediocre. The *Madālasācampū* is also attributed to Trivikrama. The earliest extant Campū from Kerala is the *Amogharāghava* by Divākara (A.D. 1299)—on the Bālakāṇḍa story of the *Rāmāyaṇa*; this type became much more common later both in Sanskrit and Malayālam.