A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s4.23

c19.s4.23

Bhaṭṭumūrti, who came to be known later as Rāma Rāja Bhūshaṇa, had a long and distinguished literary career. His *Narasabhūpāliyam* is a work on rhetoric written in imitation of Vidyānātha’s *Pratāparudrīya* and dedicated to Toragaṇṭi Narasarāju. His *Hariścandra-Nalopākhyānam* is a poem in which each verse has two meanings and tells the story of Nala as well as that of Hariścandra. But he is best known for his *Vasucaritra* which elaborates a simple story with great art. The theme is the marriage of prince Vasu with princess Girika, the daughter of the river Śuktimati and the mountain Kolāhala—a minor episode in the *Mahābhārata*. The musical cadence of his verse and the high imagination characteristic of his often over-elaborated descriptions have been highly esteemed by critics. The poem was written in the reign of Tirumala I, the brother of Rāma Rāya, and dedicated to him. It was translated into Sanskrit.