A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s1.25

c19.s1.25

The next great name is that of Appaya Dikshita (1520-92), author of over a hundred works in many branches of Sanskrit learning, who was patronized by the Nāyak chieftains of Vellore, particularly by Chinna Bomma. His commentary on the Yādavābhyudaya has been mentioned already. Other contributions which he made to poetry and poetics include Citramīmāmsā and Lakshaṇāvalī on literary criticism and the appreciation of poetry; the Kuvalayānanda which, though in form an amplification of Jayadeva's Candrāloka, almost attains the level of an independent treatise on figures of speech; Vrittivārttika, a treatise on the significance of words in their poetic use; Varadarājastava, and many other devotional poems. The family of Appaya Dikshita produced a considerable number of talented authors, all of whom cannot be mentioned here. Nilakantha Dikshita, Appaya's great-nephew, was a greater poet than his uncle and wrote several works which attained a degree of literary force and charm which had been unknown for several centuries; the Nilakaṇṭha-Vijaya-campū (1637), Gaṅgāvataraṇa, Nalacaritaṇāṭaka and the Śivalīlārṇava, all exhibit the superior talent of the author, who is reputed to have been minister to Tirumalai Nāyaka of Madura.