Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c31.82

v1.c31.82

24. BALADEVA VIDYĀBHŪṢAṆA, known simply as Vidyābhūṣaṇa. His work, dignified with the name of "a *vṛtti* on Bharata's *sūtra*" (so he calls Mammaṭa's *kārikās*³), is called the *Sāhitya-kaumudī*, on which he himself writes a *ṭippaṇa*, called *Kṛṣṇānandinī*. A work called *Kāvyakustubha* in 9 *prabhās* is noticed and attributed to one Vidyābhūṣaṇa in Stein pp. 59, 268, who appears to be a Vaiṣṇava and probably the same as our author (see pref. to *Kāvyamālā* ed. of the *Sāhitya-kaumudī* and Aufrecht i 101a, ii 19b, 193b, iii 22b). The work deals with (1) *kāvya-phalādi* (2) *śabdārtha-vṛtti* (3) *rasa* (4) *rīti* (5) *doṣa* (6) *dhvani-bheda* (7) *madhyama-kāvya* (8) *alaṃkāras*. He was a pupil of Dāmodara-dāsa (concluding verse and its commentary) and Gopāladāsa (*alias* Rasikānanda, commentary on śl. 1), and the *guru* of Uddhavadāsa. He was a Vaiṣṇava and follower of Caitanya, and wrote various vaiṣṇava works. According to a tradition in Bengal, to which place he belonged, he was a contemporary of Jayasiṃha of Jayapur, who flourished in the beginning of the 18th century. Aufrecht notes that his commentary on the *Utkalikā-vallarī* was written in 1765 A.D. A pun in the first verse of his *Sāhitya-kaumudī* refers, as he himself explains in the *ṭippaṇa*, to Gajapati Pratāparudra of Utkala or Orissa.