A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s1.20

c19.s1.20

To the thirteenth century also belonged Śāradātanaya, born of a scholarly family in the Chingleput district, and author of the well-known Bhāvaprakāśa, an important work on literary criticism, which cites many writers and works otherwise unknown; he also wrote the Śaradiya, a treatise on music. Another celebrity of the same age and neighbourhood was the great Vaishnava teacher Venkatanātha or Vedānta Dēśika (b. 1268) who, though better known for his works on religion and philosophy, achieved distinction in the domain of general literature as well. His Mahākāvya on Krishna's life, called Yādavābhyudaya, was commented on by the great Appaya Dikshita; the Hamsa-sandeśa, an imitation of Kālidāsa's Meghasandeśa, the devotional poem Pādukāsahasra, and the drama Samkalpasūryodaya (a Viśishtādvaitic counterblast to the Advaitic drama Prabodhacandrodaya of Krishna-miśra), deserve particular mention among his other general works.