Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c11.1

v1.c11.1

The earliest direct citation of Bhāmaha in later Alaṃkāra literature is to be found in two passages in Ānandavardhana's *vṛtti* on the *Dhvanyāloka* (pp. 39, 207). The next interesting reference occurs in the commentary of Pratihārendurāja, who informs us (p. 13) that his author Udbhaṭa composed a work, presumably a commentary, on Bhāmaha, which is described here as *Bhāmaha-vivaraṇa*. This statement is confirmed by Abhinavagupta (*Locana* pp. 10, 40, 159, *vivaraṇakṛt*) and Hemachandra (Comm. pp. 17, 110); while Ruyyaka cites the commentary generally as *bhāmahīya udbhaṭa-lakṣaṇa* (p. 183) and Samudrabandha discribes it as *kāvyālaṃkāra-vivṛti* (p. 89). There are also numerous passages in Udbhaṭa's independent work, *Kāvyālaṃkāra saṃgraha*, which unmistakably copy some of the definitions of poetic figures directly from Bhāmaha, and do not hesitate to repeat the very language of the earlier work¹.