Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c24.1

v1.c24.1

The date of Dhanañjaya may be taken as approximately settled. The author informs us (iv 80) that he was the son of Viṣṇu and that he flourished in the circle of distinguished literary men surrounding king Muñja, who himself seems to have been a man of taste and learning, as well as a patron of letters. We should not, with Peterson¹, confound this Muñja, better known as Muñja-vākpatirāja, with Vākpatirāja (or Bappai-rāa), the author of *Gauḍavaha*, who lived in the first half of the 8th century under king Yaśovarman of Kanauj and is referred to by Kalhaṇa (iv 144) and Rājaśekhara. Our Muñja appears to be the seventh ruler of the Paramāra dynasty of Mālava, who, as his own inscriptions record², came to the throne in 974 A.D., succeeding his father Harṣadeva Sīyaka, and reigned till about 995 A.D., when he was defeated, imprisoned and executed, as the Cālukya inscriptions attest³, by the Cālukya Tailapa II. Besides being known as Vākpatirāja¹, owing perhaps to the fact that he was himself a poet, he had several other *birudas*, such as Amoghavarṣa, Pṛthvī-vallabha, and Śrī-vallabha; and one of his inscriptions calls him Utpalarāja², a fact, overlooked by the editors of the Kāvyamālā Series (pt. i p. 131), made them confound him with Utpala, the Śaiva philosopher of Kashmir, who was Abhinavagupta's *parama-guru*. This ruler is mentioned by Śambhu³, as well as by Padmagupta⁴, as "a friend of poets" (*kavi-bāndhava* or *kavi-mitra*); and Bhoja, his nephew and successor, appears to have inherited these traits of his character.