Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c35.14

v1.c35.14

Vāgbhaṭa I seems to have been contemporaneous with Hemacandra, and lived under the Cālukya Jayasiṃha Siddharāja of Aṇahilla-paṭṭana², who flourished from 1094 to 1143 A.D. We have references to this king and his capital in iv 45, 76, 81, 85 and 132, and he is described as the son of king Karṇadeva. Both Jinavardhana Sūri and Siṃhadeva Gaṇi in their commentaries explain that the prince referred to is Jayasiṃha, son of Karṇadeva, of Aṇahilla-pāṭaka. It also appears from what Siṃhadeva Gaṇi on iv 148 says that Vāgbhaṭa was probably a *mahāmātya* of the said prince, a statement which is supported by the description given of our author in Prabhācandra Sūri's *Prabhāvaka-carita*³, from which we also learn that Vāgbhaṭa lived in 1123 A.D. and also in 1157 A.D. Vāgbhaṭa's literary activity, therefore, may be assigned roughly to the first half of the 12th century.