Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c50.1

v1.c50.1

Keśava himself tells us that he composed his *Alaṃkāra-śekhara* at the request of a ruling chief named Māṇikyacandra, son of Dharmacandra and grandson of Rāmacandra, who is said to have ruled near Diḷhī (Dhilli) and defeated the king of Kābila (Kabul?). Eggeling¹ is obviously wrong in identifying him with Māṇikyacandra of Tirabhukti or Tirhut; while Bühler² did not go further than suggesting that this prince was not a Kashmiri an but ruled or lived in Delhi just before the Muhammadan conquest. The patron of our author, however, appears to be Māṇikyacandra of Koṭ-kaṅgra, whose genealogy corresponds to that given by Keśava and whose date of accession, according to Cunningham³, is 1563 A.D. The literary activity of Keśava may, therefore, be fixed in the third quarter of the 16th century.