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Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c23: X Rajasekhara

Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c23

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X Rajasekhara

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Rājaśekhara, son of *mahāmantrin* Durduka or Duhika and Śīlavatī¹ and great-grandson of the poet Akālajalada of the Yāyāvara family, is better known as a poet and dramatist than as a writer on Poetics. In his *Bāla-rāmāyaṇa* i 12, Rājaśekhara describes himself as the author of six works which must have existed even before this presumably early production of his². It is not known whether his other three well-known dramas belong to this period, but it appears that he probably composed more than six works. Hemacandra (Comm. p. 335) cites a work of Rājaśekhara's, entitled *Hara-vilāsa*, as an example of a poem which bears the name of its author (*svanāmāṅktā*), and quotes two verses from the same (Comm. pp. 334-335); from which Ujjvaladatta also (ii 28) gives a half-verse. In the *Kāvya-mīmāṃsā*, again (xvii p. 98), there is a reference to another work of his own, called *Bhuvana-koṣa*, for information on universal geography. Ujjvaladatta (ii 76) also quotes a line from Rājaśekhara on the synonyms of Śiva, which, if not occurring in the *Hara-vilāsa*, was probably taken from an unknown lexicon by him.

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¹ *Bāla-rāmā° ad.* i 7, 13; *Bāla-bhā° ad.* i 8; *Viddha-śāla° ad.* i 5. Rājaśekhara calls himself a Kavirāja (*Karpūra-mañj°* i 9; *Viddha-śāla°* i 5), which is, according to *Kāv.mīm.*, the seventh, out the ten stages, of poetic skill, one degree higher than that of a *mahākavi*.

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² In *Karpūra-mañj°* i 9 we are told that Rājaśekhara began his career as a *bāla-kavi*, so called apparently from his two works *Bāla-rāmā°* and *Bāla-bhā°*; while in this Prakrit drama, as well as in *Viddha-śāla°*, he appears to have attained the distinction of a *Kavirāja*.

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In the two anthologies of Vallabhadeva and Śārṅgadhara, we get a considerable number of verses ascribed to Rājaśekhara. Of these, about 24 have been identified by Sten Konow in Rājaśekhara’s four plays¹, but about 10 have not yet been traced in any of his known works, nor are they to be found in his *Kāvya-mīmāṃsā*. These untraced verses, including most of the memorial verses on the poets, probably belong to another and younger Rājaśekhara².

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¹ ed. *Karpūra-mañj°*, pp. 189-91.

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² This other Rājaśekhara may or may not be the Jaina Rājaśekhara, author of the *Prabandhakoṣa* (1348 A.D.). Rice 282 mentions a work called *Karpūrarasa-mañjarī* by Bālakavi, which apparently refers to Rājaśekhara and his well-known Prakrit drama, and not to any work on Alaṃkāra.

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There can be hardly any doubt that the *Kāvya-mīmāṃsā* should be ascribed to the dramatist Rājaśekhara, although it is not mentioned in these enumerations of Rājaśekhara’s works³. Our author gives his own name at the end of the first chapter as yāyāvarīya Rājaśekhara, which agrees with the description given in the dramas and which makes the later writers cite our author simply as *yāyāvara*¹ The opinions of this *yāyāvara* family, to which he belonged and in which were born poets and scholars like Surānanda², Akālajalada³, Tarala⁴ and Kavirāja, are cited frequently by him under the general designation *yāyāvarīya*⁵, as well as under the individual names of these famous members who are enumerated in the *Bāla-rāmāyaṇa* i 13 and elsewhere. He also quotes with respect the views of his wife Avantisundarī (pp. 20, 46, 57), for whose pleasure, we know, he wrote his *Karpūra-mañjarī* (i 11) and who seems to have been an accomplished authoress. The present work does not also omit a display the author's love for Prakrit dialects, as well as his knowledge of geography (ch. xvii), of which he gives ample evidence in Act x of the *Bāla-rāmāyaṇa*. These and other details, on which we need not dwell any further, show that our Rājaśekhara is no other than the well-known dramatist.

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³ Aufrecht notes (*ABod* 135a) that the *Kāv. mīm.* is cited by name by Śaṅkara in his commentary on *Śakuntalā*.

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¹ *Bāla-bhā*° i 6, 13; *Viddha-śāla*° i 5, and Dhanapāla in *Tilaka-mañj*° ed. Kāvyamālā 85, 1903, śl. 33. Nārāyaṇa Dikṣita on *Viddha-śāla*. i 5 quotes Devala to show that *yāyāvara* means a kind of householder (*dvividho gṛhasthaḥ, yāyāvaraḥ śālīnaś ca*).

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² an ornament of the country of the Cedis (*cedimaṇḍala-maṇḍana*, Rājaśekhara in Jalhaṇa). His patron Raṇavigraha is supposed by Bhandarkar (*Report*, 1887-91, p. xix) to have been the brother-in-law of Kṛṣṇa II of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa dynasty, whose dates range from 875 to 911 A.D. Quoted also in *Kāv. mīm.* p. 75.

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³ Rājaśekhara's grandfather. Cited in *Śr.Paddhati* 777 = *Subhāṣ*° 843 (*dākṣiṇātya*). Famous for his poetical jems, some of which were plagiarised by Kādamdarīrāma (Jalhaṇa 23a and b). Called *mahārāṣṭra-cūḍāmaṇi* in *Bāla-rāmā*° ; also see *Viddha-śāla*° i 5.

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⁴ Cited by Jalhaṇa. Author of a work, called probably *Suvarṇa-bandha*.

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⁵ pp. 2, 3, 4, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 23, 26, 27, 30, 31, 35, 42, 43, 46, 50, 56, 58, 61, 62, 63, 78, 90, 91, 94, 99, 100.

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The published text of the *Kāvya-mīmāṃsā* is apparently the first part of a projected extensive volume, of which a general summary or scheme is given in the first chapter and which is also indicated by occasional remarks (like *rītayas tisras tās tu purastāt* p. 10 and *tam aupaniṣadike vakṣyamaḥ* p. 11) relating to topics to be dealt with in other succeeding parts. If the complete work, as projected, consisted of eighteen *adhikaraṇas*, we have now only one volume surviving on the preliminary topic of *kavi-rahasya* alone¹. Keśava Miśra (pp. 32, 67) quotes three verses from an Alaṃkāra-work by Rājaśekhara, which, if they belong to our author, were apparently taken, as their contents indicate, from some lost chapters on *ubhayālaṃkārika* and *vainodika* respectively.

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¹ Cf introd. to *Kāv. mīm.* p. xvii-xviii.

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The popularity of the *Kāvya-mīmāṃsā* with the later writers is indicated by the extensive use made of it by Kṣemendra, Bhoja, Hemacandra and the younger Vāgbhaṭa. Hemacandra, for instance, has literally copied long passages from chs. viii, ix, xiii-xviii; while Vāgbhaṭa has borrowed the same (as well as other) portions either directly from the same source or indirectly through Hemacandra¹.

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¹ A comparative table is given of these wholesale borrowings at the end of the notes in the Gaekwad ed. of the text.

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Rājaśekhara himself is indebted to many old writers and cites directly the opinions of Medhāvirudra (p. 12), Udbhaṭa and Audbhaṭas (pp. 22, 44), Vāmana and Vāmanīyas (pp. 14, 20), Rudraṭa (p. 31), Maṅgala (pp. 11, 14, 16, 20) and Ānanda (p. 16), besides unnamed authors who are cited under the general designation ācārya². We also find the names of Aparājita (who is quoted in *Subhāṣitāvalī* 1024, and mentioned as a contemporary poet and author of *Mṛgāṅkalekhā-kathā* in *Karpūra-mañjarī*, ad i 8 but given in our text as Āparājiti), Surānanda, one of his ancestors, his wife Avantisundarī, Pālyakīrti (p. 46), Śyāmadeva (pp. 11, 13, 17) and Vākpatirāja³ (p. 62), all of whom, as the citations show, seem to have expressed some opinions on the topics under discussion.

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² pp. 3, 9, 13, 16, 20, 23, 30, 35, 50, 51, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62, 78, 94, 99.

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³ This Vākpatirāja (Bapai-rāa) is apparently the author of the *Gauḍavaha* (middle of the 8th century: Kalhaṇa iv 144) and must be distinguished from Muñja-vākpatirāja, the 7th Paramāra king of Mālava, who reigned from 947 to 995 A.D. See below under Dhanañjaya.

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The date of Rājaśekhara has been settled with some exactitude. We learn from his four extant plays¹ that he was a teacher (*upādhyāya*) to a king named Mahendrapāla (otherwise known as Nirbhaya or Nibbhaya), and was also patronised by his son and successor Mahīpāla². We also understand that one of his plays, the *Bāla-bhārata*, was performed at a place called Mahôdaya, for which he shows a partiality also in his *Kavya-mīmāṃsā*. Fleet has shown³ that this Mahīpāla should be indentified with the Mahīpāla of the Asni inscription, dated 917 A.D., and he agrees with Pischel⁴ that Mahôdaya is another name for Kānyakubja or Kanauj⁵, with which place this king, as well as Mahendrapāla, is connected in the Siyadoni inscription⁶. It has also been shown by Aufrecht⁷ and Pischel⁸ that Mahendrapāla, whose date appears to be 903-07 A.D. from Kielhorn’s summing up of the names of the four sovereigns of Kanauj as presented by the Siyadoni inscription, went also by the *biruda* of Nirbhara or Nirbhaya (Nibbhara or Nibbhaya in the Prakrit form), a fact of which Fleet seems to have been unaware⁹. From these evidences, it is clear that Rājaśekhara must have flourished in the beginning of the 10th century, and probably also lived towards the end of the 9th. This is also supported by the fact that the latest writer quoted by Rājaśekhara are Ratnākara and Ānandavardhana, who belong to the middle or second half of the 9th century, while the earliest writer to mention Rājaśekhara appears to be the Jaina Somadeva, whose Yaśastilaka is dated 960 A.D.¹

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¹ *Viddha-śāla*[^o] i 6; *Bāla-rāmā*[^o] i 5; *Bāla-bhāra*[^o] i 7, 11; *Karpūra-mañj*[^o] i 5, 9.

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² *Bāla-bhāra*[^o] i 7.

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³ *IA* xvi 175-78.

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⁴ *GgA*, 1883, pp. 1217f.

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⁵ Cf. *Bāla-rāmā*[^o] x *ad* 87, 89, 90. Rājaśekhara’s partiality for Mahôdaya is also apparent in our text at pp. 8, 94.

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⁶ *EI* i 170 f.

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⁷ *ZDMG* xxvii.

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⁸ *op. cit.* p. 1221.

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⁹ Fleet further shows (*op. cit.* p. 175f) that this Mahendrapāla must not be taken, as Peterson and Durgāprasāda

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¹ For other details about Rājaśekhara see Sten Konow's edition of *Karpūra-mañjī* (Harvard Orient. Series 4, 1901) pp. 175f, which gives a full bibliography.

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are inclined to take him, to be identical with the feudatory Mahendrapāla, whose inscription from Dighwa-Dubauli, dated 761-62 A.D., he has edited in *IA* xv 105, and who is distinct from the pupil of Rājaśekhara.

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Edition. With introd. and notes by C.D.Dalal in Gaekwad Orient. Series 1, Baroda 1916.

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MSS. Peterson v p. 19(fragment); Śrīdhara Bhāndarkar, *Rept. of Two Tours in search of Sansk. MSS*, 1904-6, pp. 23-24.

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