The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c24.s3.11

c24.s3.11

The name of Hāla, the seventeenth king, by virtue of its association with literary tradition, possesses special interest. The anthology of erotic verses, written in the ancient dialect of Mahārāshtra, and entitled *Saptaśataka*, or ‘Seven Centuries’, professes to be the composition of Hāla, and is ascribed by tradition to Sālivāhana, another form of Sātavāhana. Prof. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar therefore has suggested that probably either king Hāla may have been the author of the work, or it may have been dedicated to him.¹ Other traditions also associate literature written in Prākrit with kings of the Āndhra dynasty. In their time and territory Sanskrit, apparently, was not in ordinary use as the language of polite literature.