A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s1.37

c19.s1.37

In some ways Kerala occupied from the beginning a special position as regards Sanskrit learning and institutions for its promotion, and this became more apparent from the (fifteenth century) when the Zamorins of Calicut began to stand out as the most powerful rulers of Kerala. An early ruler of the line instituted an annual convocation of scholars and poets for public debates, the most meritorious among them being awarded the title of Bhaṭṭa and money-presents; the whole occasion was known as Bhaṭṭadānam. This went on for about a century and a half and attracted to Calicut scholars from distant countries. Mānavikrama, the Zamorin who ruled in the middle of the fifteenth century, was a distinguished scholar himself and a patron of letters; emulating the legendary Vikramāditya of Ujjain who had ‘nine gems’ (poets) adorning his court, Mānavikrama gathered eighteen literary gems about himself, and an inspired Malayālam poet Punam, recognized as a half-poet; the names of only a few of these eighteen-and-a-half (Padineṭṭarakkavigal) have survived. In this constellation, the Bhaṭṭatiris of Payyūr who specialized in Mimāmsā literature stood out prominently; they were great writers in the field of belles-lettres also. There were three Parameśvaras among them; the earliest of them wrote two commentaries on the Nyāya-kaṇikā (Mimāmsā) of Vāchaspati Miśra. He wrote also the Haricharita, an artificial composition of 263 stanzas each beginning with one of the chandra-vākyas of Vararuchi in order. His grandson Parameśvara II was known as Mimāmsā-chakravarti. He composed scholarly commentaries on Maṇḍana Miśra's Sphoṭa-siddhi (on the sphoṭa doctrine) and Vibhrama-viveka (on the five Khyāti-vādas); on Vāchaspati Miśra's Tattvabindu (on the source of verbal cognition); and on Chidānanda's Niti-tattvā-virbhāva (Mimāmsā). In the commentary on the Sphoṭa-siddhi he claims to come of a family whose members were the sole authority on the interpretation of the works of Maṇḍana. He had a brother Vāsudeva II, a poet who, after the manner of his earlier namesake of the ninth century A.D. wrote three Yamaka (alliterative) Kāvyas, viz. Devī-charita, Satyatapahkathā and Achyutalilā. The third Parameśvara was grandson of the second, and author of Mimāmsā-sūtrārtha-sangraha, a commentary on Jaimini's sūtras on the lines of Śabarasvāmin, besides other works.