A History of Sanskrit Literature c13.16

c13.16

To the same century and Kashmir belongs Abhinanda, son of Jayanta Bhaṭṭa, the logician, who wrote an epitome in epic form of the *Kādambarī* of Bāṇa, styled the *Kādambarīkathāsāra*,¹ and who mentions Rājaçekhara as a contemporary. The date of his namesake, son of Çatānanda, author of a *Rāmacarita*, which deals with the history of Rāma from the rape of Sītā, is unknown, and equally uncertain is it to which of these worthies is ascribed by an unknown hand² comparison with Kālidāsa. What is certain is that neither deserves it in the slightest. Kashmir again in the eleventh century produced a writer of the most unflinching industry and often dreariness,³ the polymath Kṣemendra. In 1037 he wrote his *Bhāratamañjarī*,¹ in 1066 a *Daçāvatāracarita*,² in which each of the ten incarnations of Viṣṇu is described, the ninth being the Buddha thus definitely adopted into the Hindu pantheon. Of early date no doubt is his *Rāmāyaṇamañjarī*,³ an epitome of the epic, which like that of the *Bhārata* is correct and important for the history of the text but poetically worthless. He turned the *Kādambarī* also into verse in the *Padya-Kādambarī*.