A History of Sanskrit Literature c13.23

c13.23

Kashmir again in the twelfth century produced an interesting writer in Maṅkha, pupil of Ruyyaka, who mentions in his *Alaṃkārasarvasva* his epic, the *Çrīkaṇṭhacarita*,⁴ which in twenty-five cantos tells the tale of the overthrow by Çiva of the demon Tripura. The form is the stereotyped one with a few variations; thus in Canto i prayers and benedictions occupy a considerable space, in ii and iii we have some ethical matter in the form of descriptions of the good and the bad, &c. But by iv we are back to a description of Kailāsa, of its master (v), the spring (vi), and then of the usual sports, swinging, plucking flowers in the woods, mixed bathing (vii–ix). Then follow the equally usual descriptions of the dusk, the rising of the moon, and allied topics until in xviii–xxi we have a return to more martial exploits; after the usual confusion the hosts of Çiva are marshalled and got under way. The Daityas are confounded (xxii), the battle is fought in the stereotyped way (xxiii), and Tripura burned. Then by a happy transition Maṅkha gives us in xxv the only part of the poem worth reading. He depicts a durbar of learned men held by his brother Alaṃkāra, minister of Jayasiṅha (1129–50). Here we have a picture from the real life of the persons who made up this learned society, their special capacities and interests, the occasion for the gathering being his completion of his poem and his declamation of it to his friends. We learn much of interest, including the fact that he was one of four brothers who all were writers and officials of the court. Doubtless such a Sabhā must have represented with great accuracy the meetings common in the days of Kālidāsa and earlier; the similarity to those familiar to us from Statius, Juvenal, Martial, and Pliny is striking and interesting. No such excursion into the realms of real life enlivens the *Haracaritacintāmaṇi*¹ of the Kashmirian Jayaratha in the same century, which, however, has some value for religion as at once a storehouse of Çaiva myths and of evidence of Çaiva practices and beliefs.