History of Sanskrit Poetics c6.28.3

c6.28.3

in the 19th year of Siri Pulumāyi are given below.¹ It will be noticed that they are full of alliteration, the language is forcible and sonorous and there are long compounds, which were the essence of prose according to somewhat later works like the काव्यादर्श (ओजः समासभूयस्त्वमेतद्गद्यस्य जीवितम् । I. 80) which dictum was probably based on older prose works now lost that were imitated by the writers of the early inscriptions in Sanskrit and Prakrit. Vide for other comparatively old Sanskrit Inscriptions, Dr. R. C. Majumdar’s ‘Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East’ (vol. 1, book III. p. 1, the Vo-Chanh Rock Inscription from Champā in Sanskrit of the 2nd or 3rd century A. D. containing two वसन्ततिलका verses), I. H. Q. vol. 16 p. 484 (Dr. G. Coedés), vol. 17 pp. 107-110 (Dr. D. C. Sarkar for same as to date); the Pikira grant of Pallava king सिंहवर्मन्, son of युवमहाराज विष्णुगोप and grandson of महाराजस्कन्दवर्मन् II in Sanskrit prose with long compounds. An inscription of the 4th century A. D. contains a panegyric of the great Emperor समुद्रगुप्त by हरिषेण (vide Fleet’s Gupta Inscriptions, No. 1 p. 8). The prose of this प्रशस्ति rivals the style of Bāṇa. This प्रशस्ति tells us that ‘the title कविराज has been applied to समुद्रगुप्त on account of the composition of many kāvyas that were the source of inspiration to learned men’.