Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c44.28

v1.c44.28

It is not clear on what grounds Weber and Eggeling¹ state that the *Sāhitya-darpaṇa* was composed "on the banks of the Brahmaputra", i. e. in Eastern Bengal. It appears on the contrary that Viśvanātha was probably a native of Kaliṅga, which we may take at this date to have been co-extensive roughly with Orissa and Ganjam. In his commentary on Mammaṭa, he explains certain expression with Oriya equivalents²; and speaking of his ancestor Nārāyaṇa, he refers to king Narasimha-deva of Kaliṅga (presumably Narasimha II, about 1279-1306), at whose court Nārāyaṇa vanquished one Dharmadatta³, who is also referred to in the *Sāhitya-darpaṇa* at pp. 73, 79⁴. It is probably in praise of one of the Narasimhas of Kaliṅga that Viśvanātha's lost poem *Narasimha-vijaya* was written.