A History of Sanskrit Literature c15.s2.5

c15.s2.5

Unfortunately the only tradition recorded is absolutely foolish; the great sage Çaṅkara is alleged to have animated for a period the body of a king of Kashmir in order to obtain knowledge of the pleasures of love, and the Çataka is the record of his experiences with the hundred ladies of the harem. The commentator Ravicandra carries this out to the extent of finding a theosophic sub-meaning in the stanzas. Other commentators have different views. Vemabhūpāla (14th cent.), commentator of the first recension, following up the description of the poem as having as its purpose the exposition of the sentiment of love, contained in the manuscripts, seeks to show for each stanza that it describes the condition of a Nāyikā, or heroine according to the description of the text-books of poetics. Others content themselves with explaining the forms of rhetorical figures found therein. We may, however, dismiss the idea that the work was intended, like Rudra Bhaṭṭa's *Çṛṅgāratilaka*, to illustrate types of anything, whether figures or heroines.¹ The Çataka is essentially a collection of pictures of love, and it differs from the work of Bhartṛhari in that, while Bhartṛhari deals rather with general aspects of love and women as factors in life, Amaru paints the relation of lovers, and takes no thought of other aspects of life. Possibly, if the reference to the purpose in the title in the manuscripts has any value, he may have planned illustrating other sides of life, but that is idle conjecture, and we have sufficient cause to be grateful to him for what he has given us without seeking more.