Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c27.8

v1.c27.8

Kalhaṇa states (vii 259)¹ that king Bhoja of Dhārā was the true friend of poets; and it is possible that he had himself literary predilections. He was the son and successor of Sindhurāja and a nephew Muñja-vākpatirāja who was also, as we have seen a great patron of letters. The date of Bhoja is well known from his own and other inscriptions². Alberuni³ mentions him as still reigning in 1030 A D., while the date *śaka* 964 = 1042 A.D. is given by the *Rāja-mṛgāṅka* which is attributed to Bhoja. We know also that he fought with Cālukya Jayasiṃha III between 1011 and 1019 A.D., and with the latter's successor Someśvara (1042-1066 A.D.), who according to Bilhaṇa took Dhārā by storm and forced Bhoja to flee. Bilhaṇa himself speaks of Bhoja as of a contemporary ‘whom he did not visit though he might have done so’⁴. In Kalhaṇa's assertion, referred to above, with respect to Bhoja and Kṣitirāja, the phrase *tasmin kṣaṇe* is taken by Bühler to refer to the period when, after the nominal coronation of Kalasa in 1062