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A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s6: The Ornate Court Epic

A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s6

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English

The Ornate Court Epic

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The ornate court epic of the classical and post-classical periods derives its materials mostly from tales about old gods and heroes, as they are narrated in the two popular epics and in the purāṇas. Thus, for example, Kālidāsa in his epic Raghuvaṁśa retells the story of Rāma, whilst for the plot of his Kumārasaṁbhava he depends on the purāṇic myths¹.

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¹ On the critical problems regarding both these epics of Kālidāsa see Jacobi in OC V, Berlin 1881 II, 2 p. 133ff.

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Of these two epics in all probability Kumārasaṁbhava², "The Birth of Kumāra", is older. Kumāra is the name of the war-god Skanda, who, according to mythology, was procreated by Lord Śiva for the purpose of commandeering gods in their war against the demons. Cantos I-VIII however just describe how Umā, the daughter of the Himālaya (hence commonly called Pārvatī "daughter of the mountain"), won the affection of the terribly stern ascetic god Śiva, practising severe penance, merely through sheer power of her youthful beauty and succeeded in getting him as her husband.

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² Cantos I-VII translated into Latin and published by A. F. Stenzler, London 1838. English translation of the same cantos by R. T. H. Griffith (The Birth of the War-God, a Poem by Kālidāsa, 2nd Ed. London 1879). German translation of the Cantos I-VIII in prose by O. Walter, München—Leipzig 1913. Cantos VIII-XVII were published for the first time in the Pandit, Vol. I, 1866. In the same journal was discussed in detail the question of genuineness of these cantos by Indian scholars. (Cf. also Weber, ZDMG 27, 174ff. and Indian refutation) 3, 217 ff. 241ff. There are nice editions of all the 17 cantos with commentaries in NSP, 4th Ed., Bombay 1906; cantos I-VIII, the commentaries of Aruṇagiri and Nārāyaṇa Gaṇpati Śāstrī in TSS, Vol. 27, 32, 36, 1913-14. Following the translation of Griffith in March 1912, was presented in the Court Theatre in London the story of Kumārasaṁbhava in 18 tableaux by Indian ladies and children (As. Quart. Rev N S. 1, 1913, p. 327).

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At Indra's behest Kāma, the god of love, tries to disturb Śiva in his severe penance. In co-operation of his friend Vasanta (the spring season) and his consort Rati (lust) he starts on his errand in right earnest. Not only men and gods, but even animals and plants are stirred under the powerful awakening of the spring. (III, 39) :

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*paryāptapuṣpastavakastanābhyaḥ sphuratpravāloṣṭhamanoharābhyaḥ*

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*latāvadhūbhyastaravopyavāpurvinamraśākhābhujabandhanāni*।
"Even the trees enjoyed deep embrace
From lovely creepers, their spouses,
Their breasts, the exhuberant clusters of anxious blossoms,
With lips of sprouts,
And with twigs for arms".

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But, at the sight of the ascetic Śiva the immovable, absorbed in deep meditation, sitting on a hide of a tiger, dressed in the skin of a black antelope, his head encircled by snakes, a rosary suspended from his ears, his motionless eyes extending upto the nose---"like a cloud, not affected by rains, like a lake without an inkling of a wave, like a lamp unstirred by the wind" (III,44-48) ;-Kāma becomes doubtful of success. And then—there appears Umā in her full majesty and bloom shows her reverence to Śiva. At this opportune moment the god of love darts his arrows at Him. But the latter restrains the awakening love, passing catches sight of Kāma and burns him with the flame of the third eye in his fore-head. Umā returns home in despair. Canto fourth describes the pathetic wails of Rati over the ashes of her burnt husband¹. Umā, now dresses herself in barks and takes to a harder course of asceticism. Her penance and pious devotion at last touch the heart of Śiva. There flow solicitations. Their marriage is like that of human beings. Śiva invites the seven sages (Saptarṣi) and Arundhatī and shows her the same respect as to the holy sages : distinction goes² not to sex, but to character. VI, 12 :

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¹ Translated into German by R ü c k e r t; see Ruckert-Nachlese II 478ff.

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*tāmagauravabhedena munīṁścāpaśyad īśvaraḥ*।
*strīpumānityanāsthaiṣā vṛttaṃ hi mahitaṃ satām*।।
"With equal devotion gazed the Lord
At her, as also at the holy men,
Whether a female or male, to the great, that is the same²,
Since the fact is : it is only the conduct that is honoured".

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² A rare expression in an Indian home !

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The sight of Arundhatī, the examplar of woman's faithfulness to her husband, strengthens Śiva's desire for his sweetheart.

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At length he begs of them to ask of the Mountain for Pārvatī’s hand for him, which they willingly do. The ṛṣis go accompanied by Arundhatī, as “generally in such affairs women have the aptitude (*prāyeṇaivaṁvidhe kārye puraṁdhriṇāṁ pragalbhatā*—VI, 32)”. During the marriage, that is described in the canto seven, are performed a series of rites and ceremonies, observed as even at a human wedding. And, when the bridegroom enters into the capital of the mountain king, people rush to the windows to take a view of the Lord of Lords and of the couple¹.

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¹ The poet has borrowed here (VII, 56-69) from Aśvaghoṣa, the description of the scene in Buddhacarita III, 13-24 (see above II, 205, trans. p. 261); the picture of the lotus-faces of women, gazing down looking like real lotuses set into balconies (Buddhacarita III, 19) is taken in its entirety into the Kumāras. (VII, 62). For the rest, however, in the matter of presentation of details Kālidāsa is independent. The fact that the scene is taken over into Raghuvaṁśa (VII, 5-16) word for word shows that it had a particular fascination for the poet.

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Then in the eighth canto follows the description of amorous flings of the just married couple that discloses an accurate knowledge of Kāmaśāstra. The thoughtful fervour, the splendour of images and the choice of expression do make us feel that we are enjoying here a genuine composition of Kālidāsa. The poet describes how Śiva’s spouse is at first bashful and seems hesitant in surrendering herself completely to the will of her sweetheart. VIII, 14 :

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*sasvaje priyamuronipīḍanaṁ prārthitaṁ mukham anena nāharat* ।
*mekhalāpraṇayalolatāṁ gataṁ hastamasya śithilaṁ rurodha sā* ॥
“And now she embraced her sweetheart,
Pressing him hard with her lovely breasts,
Her face, however, she did not offer to him in response,
Though cajoled hard ;
Slowly she checked his hand,
Slowly and slowly moving, enticed to her girdle”.

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One day Śiva, lying indolently on a stone-slab in the hillside forest, just as the sun is setting in the west, leaning over the breasts of his darling, describes the beauty of the sundown and of the approaching night in such picturesque figures, as we are accustomed to expect in Kālidāsa alone. VIII, 45:

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*raktapītakapiśāḥ payomucāṁ koṭayaḥ kuṭilakeśi bhāntyamūḥ*
*drakṣyasi tvamiti saṁdhyayānayā vartikābhiriva sādhumanḍitāḥ* ॥

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“Red, yellow and brown,
There yonder shine the crests of clouds,
Now the dusk is making them appear in their best.
Touching them to a finish,
Wishing my curly Love,
Just glanced that way.”

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Kālidāsa alone could see the evening glow whelmed by the dark looking like a stream of liquidified red mineral under tamāla shades standing on its banks.

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*tāmimāṁ timiravṛddhipīḍitāṁ l*
*śailarājatanayedhunāsthitām l*
*ekatastaṭatamālamālinīṁ*
*paśya dhāturasanimnagāmiva ll*

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Other Kālidāsan pictures on view are when the west, with its declining evening glow appearing like a red stripe is compared to a field of battle touched off by a besmeared bow (VIII, 54)¹, and, again, when the moon dispels darkness as if his beloved, the night, were flicking back her hairs : further again, when Śiva kisses her face and in rapture she closes her eyes like lilies of the night (VIII, 63). Canto eight closes

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¹ The stanzas referred to here read and are translated as follows:

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*sāndhyamastamitaśeṣamātapaṁ*
*raktalekhamaparā vibharti dik l*
*sāṁparāyavasudhā sasoṇitaṁ*
*maṇḍalāgramiva tiryaguñjhitam ll*

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“The west is upholding the red line of the still remaining diminishing glow of the evening, like the warfield, the crooked sword, that is besmeared with blood and has been discarded”.

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*aṅgulibhiriva keśasañcayaṁ*
*samnigṛhya timiraṁ marīcibhiḥ l*
*kuḍmalīkṛtasarojalocanaṁ*
*cumbatīva rajanīmukhaṁ śaśī ll*

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“The moon (looks), as if kissing the face of the night, that has its lotus-eyes closed, having caught hold of the darkness with his rays, like the lock of hair with his fingers”.

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*saṁdivasaniśīthaṁ saṅginaslatra śambhoḥ*
*śatamagamadṛtūnāṁ sārdhamekā niśeva l*
*na tu suratasukhebhyaśchinnatṛṣṇo babhūva*
*jvalana iva samudrāntargatastajjalaughaiḥ ll*

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“There passed 150 seasons of Śambhu, who had his union equally during the day and night, but his lust for amorous enjoyment did not diminish, like fire that is inside the ocean, with heaps of water”.

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wit a verse letting us know that although he had enjoyed 150 seasons in amorous sports, Śiva's time passed like a single night, his craving for love, undimmed like submarine fire, never extinguished even by ocean's fathomless waters¹.

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¹ The genuineness of canto VIII has been wrongly questioned by scholars. That it is wanting in many of the manuscripts (and consequently also in the first printed edition) is due to the fact that on religious, and not perhaps moral, grounds people have been hesitant to regard as genuine the highly profane description of the enjoyments of the divine couple. Rhetoricians have been divided in opinion as to whether it is proper to describe this scene from the life of great gods. Ānandavardhana (Dhvanyāloka, III, 6, p. 137, Jacobi's translation, offprint p. 78f.) thinks that it is definitely from the pen of the poet and he even refers to that accordingly. The relevant portion of the Dhvanyāloka reads : "*mahākavīnām apyuttamadevatāviṣayaprasiddhavaṁbhogaśṛṅgāraniban dhanād anaucityaṁ śaktitiraskṛtaṁ grāmyatvena na pratibhāsate yathā kumārasambhave devīsambhogavarṇanam*". "Even master poets have delineated passion among gods and yet impropriety does not strike one as vulgar, because the impropriety has been camouflaged by the poet's genius. The description of Pārvatī's amours in the Kumārasambhava is an explicit instance". A different opinion is expressed by Mammaṭa (Kāvyaprakāśa VII) who says that it is outright improper for the poet to describe the amours of one's elders. Vāmana cites from this canto at two places in his poetics (4, 3, 33 and 5, 2, 25). The passage in Kāvyaprakāśa reads:—

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Perhaps some stanzas or probably one canto in which the birth of Kumāra was described briefly and discreetly has been lost. In that case Kālidāsa would have hardly developed the purāṇic myth of the war-god's birth, a most unsuitable theme for poetic representation, as some later hand has done in the certainly spurious cantos IX-XVII. These cantos, not only on account of their contents but also on account of their language, can easily be seen as an interpolation².

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² Since Mallinātha too wrote a commentary on cantos I-VIII as of Kālidāsa, what seems plausible is that the rest was added sometime after him. Even Aruṇagirinātha (See Gaṇapati: TSS 37, Preface), who came earlier, has commented upon only these 8 cantos. The great conformity between the Kumārasaṁbhava and the Śivarahasya of the Śaṅkarasaṁhitā of the Skandapurāṇa is to be explained through the assumption that the writer of the Śivarahasya had utilized Kumāras, cantos I-VIII, as a means for this mischief. Cf. Weber, ZDMG 27, 179, 190 ff. and Pandit. Vol, III, 19ff., Ind. Streifen, III, p. 217f.; 211 f.; [S. P. Bhattācharya, Proceeds of the Fifth Or. Con. Vol. I, pp. 43-44; S. K. De. HSL. pp. 126.] In the 14th century A.D. the Jaina Jayaśekhara wrote yet another epic Kumārasaṁbhava (see Peterson, 3 Rep. Extr. 251ff.). Udbhaṭa too had written one Kumarasaṁbhava (see above p. 19.)

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"*ratisambhogasṛṅgārarūpā uttamadevatāviṣayā na varṇanīyā,*
*tadvarṇanaṁ pitroḥ sambhogavarṇanamiva ātyantamanucitam*" :

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it has been translated by Gaṅgā Nātha Jhā as follows: "Love in the shape of erotic enjoyment is not to be described with regard to the best Divine--this description being as improper as the erotic delineation of the company of one's own parents."

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Another great epic of Kālidāsa is the **Raghuvamśa**¹, "The History of the Family of Raghu", in which the poet describes the life and achievements of Rāma and also those of his predecessors and successors. The first nine cantos are devoted to the four immediate predecessors of Rāma, Dilīpa, Raghu, Aja and Daśaratha; then in cantos X-XVI he describes, fairly in agreement with the Rāmāyaṇa, the career of Rāma. Kālidāsa does not conceal the fact that he found his inspirations in the great epic of Vālmīki². However, he does not let himself off into a competition with the ādikavī. He has narrated the actual Rāma-tale very briefly, so briefly that the cantos of the Raghuvaṁśa devoted to this theme are just a neat abridgement of the seven books of the Rāmāyaṇa. On the other hand, his genius has an entire range providing new opportunities for originality, particularly in the cantos devoted to Raghu and Aja.

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¹ Text with Latin translation published by A. F. Stenzler, London, 1832. Of the Indian editions those of Shankar P. Pandit in BSS, 1869-1874, G. R. Nandargikar (3rd ed., Bombay 1897) with Mallinātha's commentary, numerous explanatory notes and complete English translation in prose deserve a mention. Ad. Fr. Graf von Schack, Orient und Occident III, Stuttgart 1890, has indeed given a beautiful, abridged and free German metrical rendering. E. Leumann gives a metrical translation of the first 31 stanzas in Festschrift Windisch, p. 43 ff. and O. Walter, München-Leipzig 1914, gives a complete translation in German prose.

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² To Kālidāsa Vālmīki is a sage of former times, a contemporary of his hero Rāma and ādikavi "or the first of poets" (XI, 41).

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Almost all the heroes of the solar race whose carreers and achievements have been sung by Kālidāsa are weal as kings. All of them devote, as said in I. 8, their childhood to the study of sciences, strive for worldly success in youth and in old age, like pious hermits, resort to sylvan life for the purpose of meditation. As rulers they extend the boundaries of their empire and administer a noble and honest government for the welfare of their subjects. They are of strictly Brāhmaṇical faith and solemnly observe all the religious ceremonies of the states, holding the arch-priest in the highest esteem. Such an ideal king among them is Dilīpa, grandson of Vivasvān, about whom Kālidāsa says (I, 18) :—

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*prajānāmeva bhūtyarthaṁ sa tābhyo balim agrahīt* ।
*sahasraguṇaṁ utsraṣṭum ādatte hi rasaṁ raviḥ* ॥

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“For their welfare alone
He realized the taxes from his people,
Even as the sun draws up water
To return hundred times to the earth.”

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Subsequently when Dilīpa retires into the forest, his son Raghu succeeds to the kingship. His famous campaign for victory over the world (*digvijaya*) is described in detail. All the enemies bow down before him, so that he is able to perform at the end a Viśvajit (all-subduing) sacrifice. He is succeeded by his son Aja, in whose career the poet evinces greater personal interest. He marries Indumatī, the princess of Bhoja. The ceremony of “self choice of husband” (*svayaṁvara*) is described vividly. It is an elegant festive assembly that we see. After the bards have recited the genealogies of the princes, present, Indumatī appears in her nuptial rôle. She attracts the heart of everybody; each one hopes for the best. Led by the concierge she emerges directly into the circle of the waiting princes. But none of them pleases her, and

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*sañcāriṇī dīpaśikheva rātrau yaṁ yaṁ vyatīyāya patiṁvarā sā* ।
*narendramārgāṭṭa iva prapede vivarṇabhāvaṁ sa sa bhūmipālaḥ* ॥
“Desirous of selecting her husband,
Whomsoever she passed by,
Turned colourless, like watch-tower on the king’s highway,
At the approach of a glimmering lamp,
At night”¹.

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¹ The comparison contained in this verse (VI, 67) of Indumatī with the glimmer of a lamp (dīpaśikhā) has pleased the Indian poets so much so that they remember the poet, on account of this simile, as the “**Dīpaśikhā-Kālidāsa**” (see Peterson, OC VI; Leiden 1883, III, 2, 339 ff.),

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But the moment she comes near Aja, her heart throbs and after a show of maidenly bashfulness she throws the garland about his neck, thus selecting him for her husband. After her marriage, however, the rejected princes leave behind their presents and withdraw with a cheerful face, concealing their feeling of disappointment “like clear lakes, sheltering crocodiles in their depths” (VII, 30). On the way home Aja is attacked by these disgruntled princes and there ensues a bloody battle, the description whereof offers the poet an occasion for many splendid similes. To him the battle field appears like Death's drinking stall, where the heads of the slain enemies are the fruits, their dropped helmets, the drinking cups and the stream of blood flowing from them, the liquor (VI, 40). Then the poet depicts in beautiful verses the ideal administration of Aja after his coronation, and his happy family-life, that is blessed with the birth of a son, Daśaratha. One day while the king is walking with his wife in the park, suddenly a garland of heavenly flowers falls from nowhere on the breasts of the queen and she drops dead. The pathetic bewailing of the king on the demise of his beloved wife (VIII, 44-69) along with the previous description of the death of Indumatī with flowers and the following narration of how Aja too with a broken heart dies is one of the gems of Indian poetry, such as since has long been welcomed into German literature through the translation of Friedrich Ruckert. Here are quoted some of the verses from Ruckert's retranslation into English :

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14. "*praticycjayitavyavallakīsamāvasthāmatha sattvaviplavāt* ।
*sa nināya nitāntavatsalaḥ parigṛhyocitamaṅkamaṅganām* ॥
"He, who had loved her so much,
Lifting her into his arms,
Carried her, like a lute,
Awaiting re-stringing
With breath while bearing her."

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43. *vilalāpa sa bāṣpagadgadaṃ sahajāmapyapahāya dhīratāṃ* ।
*abhitaptamayopi mārdavaṃ bhajati kā hi kathā śarīriṣu.* ॥
"He lost his natural self-control,
And, with tears welling up, was sobbing violently,
His voice was choked;
Even iron, when it is heated, becomes soft;
What to talk of animals that are corporeal beings."

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44. "*kusumānyapi gātrasaṃgamāt prabhavantyāyurapohituṃ yadi* ।
*na bhaviṣyati hanta sādhanaṃ kimivānyattrahariṣyato vidheḥ* ॥
"When even flowers, on account of contact
With human body, can take away life,
Alas ‘ What is then there, that cannot become
A deadly weapon in the hand of Fate, when it is eager to strike".

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45. *athavā mṛdu vastu hiṃsituṃ mṛdunaivārabhate prajāntakaḥ* ।
*himasekavipattiratra me nalinī pūrvanidarśanaṃ gatā* ॥

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“Or it may be that only with a delicate weapon,
The ender of life undertakes to strike one that is soft;
An illustration thereof is seen in the lotus,
That is destroyed with the shower of frost.”

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54. *tadapohitumarhasi priye pratibodhena viṣādamāśu me ।*
*jvalitena guhāgataṁ tamastuhinādreriva naktamoṣadhīḥ ॥*
“Mayest thou, O Darling, rise again,
And make my grief vanish at once,
Like the plant with its blaze at night,
The darkness of the cave of the Himālayan mountain.”

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55. *idamucchvasitālakam mukhaṁ*
*tava viśrāntakathaṁ dunoti mām ।*
*niśi suptamivaikapaṅkajaṁ*
*viratābhyantaraṣaṭpadasvanam ॥*
“But thy face, with its shaking hairs,
That has ceased to converse, pains me;
Like the unitary lotus at night,
That is closed, and the bee no more hums in it.”

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66. *gṛhiṇī sacivaḥ sakhī mithaḥ priyaśiṣyā lalite kalāvidhau ।*
*karuṇāvimukhena mṛtyunā haratā tvāṁ vada kiṁ na me hṛtam ॥*
“Mistress of my house, advisor, a lady friend,
A pet disciple in fine arts,
The pitiless Death, that has deprived me of thee,
What has he not taken away from me ?”

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He does not ascend the pyre with his wife, not because he hopes to live, but for fear of the scandal that people will say “Being a king, he was so much aggrieved that he died with his wife !”

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*pramadāmanu saṁsthitaḥ śucā nṛpatiḥ sannitivācyadarśanāt ॥*

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The teacher is able to offer him only feeble consolation, and he desires to live further only for the sake of his son. When the latter becomes capable to administer the affairs of the government, Aja voluntarily lets himself die of stravation to be reunited with his beloved in the heaven.

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The following cantos (IX—XV) closely agree in contents with the Rāmāyaṇa. Here Kālidāsa shows his skill chiefly in descriptions. The successors of Rāma are just briefly described in cantos XVI-XVIII. All the same, they too are ideal kings.

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A noteworthy exception, however, is King Agni-varṇa, who has been described in canto XIX. This ruler devotes only a little of his time to the affairs of the state that he has entrusted to his ministers, whilst he wholly enjoys his youth in the company of women. Day and night he wastes his time in lust and sexual pleasures, without troubling in the least in the interest of his subjects. When they want to see him, he shows them his arm, having stretched it through a window of the palace. Like a butterfly he flies from flower to flower. He runs unsatiably after sexual pleasure. He considers the moment in which he does not rejoice the company of women as lost¹. Due to his licentious character he loses his health. Consumption brings his life to a premature end before a son is born to him. But his first queen is then pregnant and the ministers allow her to be consecrated as Her Majesty. The heat of tears that the widow sheds at the death of her husband is cooled with the coronation-water poured over her head from the spouts of golden jars, and she carries on the administration on behalf of her unborn child, concealed in her womb, like a corn-seed in the womb of the earth, and whose birth is anxiously awaited by the people.

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¹ It seems Kālidāsa tries to demonstrate his knowledge of the science of love, Kāmaśāstra, in this canto. Winternitz expresses his inability to be so enthusiastic as J. J. Meyer (Translation of the Daśakumāracarita, Intro-duction, p. 197, note), who says: "The canto XIX of the Raghuvaṁśa offers an outstanding picture, executed with classical serenity and Indian ardour, of an Indian Don Juan in his character of a mighty dare-devil and wordly man, in whom an ingenious gracefulness is natural. The canto belongs to a work that is most excellent on the whole, abounding in beautiful passages, but is so tragic towards the end". R. Schmidt, Liebe und Ehe in alten und modernen Indien, Berlin 1904, p. 134, gives a German translation of canto XIX, 1-57.

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With this the canto XIX comes to an end; but it is impro-bable that the poem too ended with it. In case the birth of the prince had been described², it could be said to have ended happily. With the text, that is available, not only does the poet leave us in uncertainty with regard to the fate of the successors of Agnivarṇa, but the epic ends really tragically, a thing which is against the practice of the Indian poets. Likewise the benedic-tory stanza, in which Indian poetry usually ends, is wanting.

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² As is the case in v. Schack's translation against of the text.

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Whether more cantos or only pairs of verses are lost to us—both being possible—we are not able to take a decision¹.

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¹ Vitthalaśāstrin testified in 1866 that the descendants of Kālidāsa then living at Dhārā possessed 26 cantos of the Raghuvamśa (Pandit, Vol. 1, p. 141), whilst Shankar P. Pandit had heard about it in 1874 (Raghuvamśa Ed., Preface, p. 15) that somebody in Ujjain possessed cantos XX-XXV of the Raghuvamśa. But till now nothing has come to light about these cantos that are claimed to have existed before. The commentaries too know only 19 cantos. Hillebrandt, Kālidāsa, p. 42, considers the last two cantos (XVIII and XIX) as spurious, simply because they appear to him of little value and devoid of taste. But since Mallinātha has commented upon these cantos, Winternitz does not consider them as spurious, especially because Hillebrandt has not refuted their high antiquity. [C. Kunhan Raja, Annals of Or. Res., Madras, V, Part 2, pp. 17-40 attempts to question the anthenticity of the entire second-half of the Raghuvamśa, starting with the story of Daśaratha: but the argument advanced by him is not convincing.]

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The fact that both of the epics of Kālidāsa belong to the most famous productions of court-poetry is proved not only by the frequent references to them in works on poetics, but also by the large number of commentaries that exist on each of both the works. There are more than 20 different commentaries on the Raghuvamśa and not less than 33 on the Kumārasambhava². The epics of Kālidāsa surpass all later epics in matter of simplicity of language and scrupulous avoidance of subtlity.

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² Cf. Aufrecht, CC. s. vv. and Nandargikar, Raghuvamśa Ed., Preface, p. 26.

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Among the many works that are wrongly attributed to Kālidāsa is found also the Prākrit epic Rāvaṇavaha (The Killing of Rāvaṇa) or the Setubandha (Construction of the Bridge)³, that describes in an elegant style the Rāma-legend from the expedition of Rāma for rescuing Sītā upto the death of Rāvaṇa (in fifteen cantos.). Probably the author of this work is Pravarasena II of Kashmir or one of his court poets⁴. Daṇḍin (Kāvyā- darśa I, 34) refers to the Setubandha as an example of a work written in Māhārāṣṭrī, the most elegant Prākrit dialect. In any case its importance lies more on the linguistic side¹. The style is unusually bombastic, full of far-fetched similes, puns, alliterations and long compounds, sometimes covering entire lines. In spite of all sorts of artificiality and affectations in style and language, the work, in any case, exhibits extraordinary perfection. It must be conceded that in many places the work shows real poetic skill, as near about the place where Rāma warns the ocean, for example, V, 34:—

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³ Prākrit and German, published by S. Goldschmidt. With a word-index by Paul Goldschmidt and the editor, Strassburg 1880-84. Cf. Weber, Ind. Stud. 18, 413 ff., 447 ff. With the commentary of Rāmadāsa, published in Km. 47, 1895.

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⁴ From Bāṇa's Harṣacarita, Introductory verse 15, Peterson (Kādambarī, Intr. p. 77ff.) first of all concluded that Pravarasena was the writer of Setubandha. It is also possible that he was simply a patron of an unknown poet. Cf. Lévi, Théatre Indien, App. p. 58 and see above p. 49; Konow, Karpūramañjarī, p. 194 ff. [WK—Pravarsena was of the Vakataka family, a grand'son of Candragupta II, identified with Pravarasena II of Kashmir [thus also Keith, HSL, 97]. It was even supposed that the poem was composed by Kālidāsa on the occasion of construction of the boat-bridge over the Vitastā (Jhelum) by Pravarasena II (see Rājatarangiṇī, III, 358). Cf S. Lévi, Theatre Indien, App., p. 58; Konow, Karpūramañjari in HOS, Vol. 4, p. 194 f. F. G. Peterson (JRAS, 1926, p. 725f.) considers the statement of Rāmadāsa (on I, 9) that Kālidāsa wrote the poem to be correct. The colophon at the end (Km. ed.) describes it as the joint work of Pravarasena and Kālidāsa. See also S. Krishnaswami Aiyangar in Ashutosh Mem. Vol., p. 152f. It is not probable that a Māhārāṣṭrī poem should have been written in Kashmir of all places. S. K. De, HSI., p. 119 thinks that the date of Pravarsena is unknown and that probably he may have reigned in Kashmir in the 5th century A. D.]

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¹ Cf. Pischel, GGA, 1880, 321 ff. and Grammatik der Prākrit Sprachen, p. 12, [transl. p. 11.]

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*ṇavari a saraṇibbiṇṇo balaāmuhavihuakesarasadugghāo ।*
*uddhāio rasanto visatthapasutta kesarivva samuddo ॥*
"Bellowing, now the ocean stirs the sub-marine fire,
Like a lion that roars and shakes his mane,
With anger, after he is aroused from deep slumber,
Having been pierced through by an arrow."

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It is a matter of inquiry as to why such an epic was written in Prākrit. In style and artificiality it is similar to Sanskrit epics, and it is difficult to believe that the readers of these poems were different from those of written in Sanskrit had. More than any Sanskrit epic, it presupposes not only a cultured, but also a very learned general public. From this it may be possible to presume that in the court of Pravarasena, Sanskrit had an inferior recognition to that of Prākrit. But it seems more probable that the poet just wanted to demonstrate that all the difficulties of language could be overcome in Prākrit too, and that all the devices of the Kāvya-style could be employed there as well².

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² In any case, it is noteworthy that upto the period of the reign of Akbar the Great (1556-1605) this work continued to interest the people. Rāmadāsa wrote his commentary in 1596 A. D. under orders of Akbar, and Akbar's son Jahāngīr got a Sanskrit translation of the Rāvaṇavaha prepared.

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Another work, that is frequently attributed to Kālidāsa is Nalodaya¹, although, on account of its style it could not have belonged to a great poet. We nowhere find in Kālidāsa such artificial metres, such fine rhymes and such a work of artistically developed kāvya-style as are presented by this poem. The epic describes in four cantos the well-known tale of Nala and Damayantī "in so artificial a form that to turn an Iliad into sonnets would be a child's play compared to it"². The poet shows extreme fascination for internal rhyming (yamaka)³ and alliteration. Perhaps the writer of the Nalodaya is Ravideva, son of Nārāyaṇa, who wrote also (as is often the case with Indian poets) a commentary on his own work. Ravideva is the writer of also a small poem of 20 stanzas, Kāvyarākṣasa or Rākṣasakāvya⁴, upon which too he wrote a commentary likewise, and what is composed in the same style, a work that in the matter of lack of taste and in euphemism is similar to the Nalodaya and like-wise is attributed to Kālidāsa⁵. We, however, know nothing more about Ravideva or his age⁶.

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¹ Nalodaya, Sanscriticum carmen Calidaso adscriptum una cum Pradschnacari Mithilensis scholiis ed. latina interpretatione..... instruxit F. Benary, Berolini 1830. Nalodaya, accompanied with a metrical translation by W. Yates, Calcutta 1844. In German (reproduction) by Ad. Fr. Grafen von Schack, Stimmen vom Ganges (Stuttagart 1877), p. 219-280. [cf. Bhandarkar, Report, 1883-84, p. 16. A. R. S. Ayyar, JRAS, 1925, pp. 263 ff. attests Vāsudeva as the author also of Yudhiṣṭhiravijaya, Tripuradahana and Śaurikathodaya.]

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² Friedrich Ruckert in Jahrbücher für wissenschaftliche Kritik 1829, p. 536. Rückert, ibid, p. 536 ff. has described the metrics and art of rhyming of Nalodaya and has translated a portion of canto II, ibid, 1831, Nr. 1 (also in Rückert-Nachlese I, 253 ff.). Cf. also W. Yates in As. Researches 20, 1836, p. 135 ff.

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³ See also above p. 18. [Keith, CSL, pp. 97ff. doubts Ravideva's being the writer of the Nalodaya, that he considers as having been written by Vāsudeva.]

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⁴ Published by A. Hoefer, Sanskrit Lesebuch, Berlin, 1849, p. 86 ff. and by K. P. Parab, Bombay 1900; annotated and translated into Italian by F. Belloni-Fillipi in GSAI 19, 1906, 83 ff.

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⁵ Pischel, ZDMG, 56, 1902, 626; 58, 1904, 244 f. Cf. Weber, Ind. Streifen II, 15; Peterson, Report IV, p. CV; 3 Reports, pp. 20, 334 ff.; Bhandarkar, Report 1883/84, p. 16.

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⁶ According to Peterson, JBRAS 17, 1889, p. 69 note, Nalodaya was written in about 1608 A. D. [It is wrong. It was not Nalodaya, but a commentary on it. that Rāma Rṣi., son of Vṛddhavyāsa, wrote in 1608 A. V. Peterson; 3 Reports, p. 29 f.].

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Here we must make mention of a poet who is frequently referred to in Indian tradition as a contemporary of Kālidāsa, i.e., Kumāradāsa, whose epic Jānakīharaṇa¹, that narrates the tale of Rāma upto the time of the kidnapping of Sītā. Tradition ascribes the authorship of the poem to a Ceylonese king Kumāradāsa (517-526), who may have been a friend of Kālidāsa. But there are many indications that go to support the view that this poem of mediocre merit is of a later date. ["It is really beyond question that he knew the Kāśikāvṛtti (c. A. D. 650), while on the other hand he must have been known to Vāmana (c. A. D. 800), who censures the use of *khalu* as the first word, found in Kumāradāsa, and cites a stanza which in content and form proclaims itself as unquestionably a citation from the lost part of the Jānakīharaṇa. Finally, he was probably earlier than Māgha, who seems to echo a verse of his. Rājaśekhara, the poet (c. A. D. 900), asserts his fame:—

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¹ For a long time Jānakīharaṇa was known only in the “Sanna”, i.e., the Singhalese word-for-word translation of the original. It had been published for the first time by G. R. Nandargikar (Bombay 1907). [Other editions are of Haridasa Sastri, Calcutta 1893; canto XVI, ed. by L. D. Barnett from a Malayālam MS in BSOS, IV, p. 285 f., (Roman text) to which addl. readings have been furnished from a Madras MS by S. K. De, in BSOS IV, p. 611 f.] The text of Nandargikar’s Kumāradāsa and his place in Sanskrit Literature, Poona 1908 was not accessible to Winternitz. The poem has been dealt with by J. d'Alwis 1870; Zachariae, Bezz. Beitr. 5. 1880, p. 52, GGA, 1887, p.95; JBRAS Peterson 17, 1889, 57 ff. and Subh. 24 f.; E. Leumann, WZKM 7, 1893, 226 ff.; F. W. Thomas, JRAS 1901, 253 ff; A. B. Kieth, ibid 578 ff. The work is often quoted in anthologies, see Thomas 34 ff., who gives “seventh century” as his date. [See S. K. De, HSL, pp. 185 ff. Only this much is certain that Kumāradāsa is older than Rājaśekhara, who mentions him.]

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*jānakīharaṇaṁ kartuṁ raghuvaṁśe sthite sati* ।
*kaviḥ kumāradāsaśca rāvaṇaśca yadi kṣamaḥ* ॥

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“No poet, save Kumāradāsa, could dare sing the rape of Sītā when the Raghuvamśa was current, even as none, but Rāvaṇa, could perform the deed, when Raghu’s line existed”². Whoever might have been this Kumāradāsa, he, in any case, had imitated Kālidāsa³, without being able to attain his standard even remotely. He is much less referred to than Bhāravi and Māgha, and his style is most analagous to that of Kālidāsa.

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² [2. Kieth, CSL, p. 119; G. R. Nandargikar, Kumāradāsa, His place in Sanskrit Literature, Poona, 1908.]

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³ Cf. O. Walter, Übereinstimmungen in Gedanken, Vergleichen und Wendungen bei indischen Kunstdichtern, Leipzig 1905, p. 18 ff.

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In the Aihoḷe inscription (634 A. D.) of Pulakeśin II beside Kālidāsa is mentioned Bhāravi as a renowned poet. [As regards his age all that is known is that he must be placed much earlier than 634 A.D.] In Indian manuals of poetics he is always included among the greatest poets. His epic Kirātārjunīya¹, according to the unanimous verdict of the Indians, belongs to the best type of classical poetry. The theme of the 18 cantos of the epic consists of the story of the battle of the hero Arjuna with the god Śiva, who assumed the form of a Kirāta². But the narration is not of any importance whatsoever. The real importance of the poem lies in interlaced descriptions, magnificent metaphors and similes and mastery in handling of the language, that reaches its highest point notably in canto XV. Here we find, e.g. verses in which only particular consonants occur (thus XV, 5 only *s*, *y*, *l* and *ś* or XV, 16, in which there is no consonant other than *n*), verses of which the two hemistichs have the same reading, but they give different meanings; then there are stanzas, in which each foot reads similarly, whether read from the beginning to the end or from the end to the beginning. Although these verbal gymnastics, like the devices of an acrobat, can no more inspire in us a feeling of admiration, we come across many splendid sketches in the description of nature that exhibit the genious of a true poet. For example we may refer to the beautiful description of the autumn in canto IV³, to the lovely bathing scene in canto VIII⁴ and to the description of the setting of the sun and of the advent of the night in canto IX. Here we find beautiful pictures, when for example, the poet says:—

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¹ A good edition with the commentary of Mallinātha has been published at Bombay NSP (6th ed., 1907). C. Schuetz, Bielefeld 1845 has translated the first two cantos into German. A complete German translation by C. Cappeller in HOS, Vol. 15. [Only cantos I-III, with the commentary of Citrabhānu, ed. Gaṇapati Sāstrī, TSS. 1918, On the austensible relation of Bhāravi and Daṇḍin, see S. K. De in IHQ, I, 1925, p. 31 f., III, 1927, p. 396; Harihara Sastri in IHQ III, 1927, p. 169 f., who would place Bhāravi and Daṇḍin at the close of the 7th century A. D.]. Walter loc. cit. p. 24 ff. shows that Bhāravi was influenced by Kālidāsa. Kirātārjunīya has been cited in the Kaśikā (Kielhorn, Ind. Ant. 14, 327).

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² Mahābhārata 3, 39 f.; see above, Vol. I, p. 292, transl. p. 347.

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³ Translated into German by M. Haberlandt in “Wiener Landwirtschaftl. Zeitung” 1883.

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⁴ VIII, 27 ff. translated into German by Rückert in Jahrbücher für wissenschaftl. Kritik, 1831, p. 15 f. (also in Rueckert—Nachlese, I, 265 ff.).

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*aṁśupāṇibhirativapipāsuḥ padmajaṁ madhu bhṛśaṁ rasayitvā* ।
*kṣībatāmiva gataḥ kṣitimesyāṁllohitam vapuruvāha pataṅgaḥ* ॥
“It seems as if the extremely thirsty sun, having excessively drunk with the hands of his rays the honey

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extracted from day-lotuses, has got intoxicated and desirous of getting to earth looks to wear a reddish body" (IX, 3), or when he compares the rising moon with a silver bowl brought for the purpose of coronation of the god of love by the night comparable to a beautiful woman (IX, 32) : *saṁvidhātumabhiṣekamudāse manmathasya lasadaṁśujalaughaḥ* । *yāminīvanitayā tatacihnaḥ sotpalo rajatakumbha ivenduḥ* ॥

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"For Love's coronation the lady-night raised aloft the moon with his shimmering sea of beams and his spots full in view, like a sliver bowl decked with lotuses."

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The Indians indeed rejoice most at the most far-fetched and most seldom similes. They have, therefore, given our poet the epithet "Sunshade—Bhāravi *(Chātapatra bhāravi)*" because at one place he compares the lotus-pollens scattered from a cluster of lotuses by stormy wind with the goddess Lakṣmī reflecting her image in a golden sunshade¹.

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¹ [*utphullasthanalanīvanādamuṣmāduddhūtaḥ sarasijasambhavaḥ parāgaḥ* । *vātyābhirviyati vivartitaḥ samantādādhatte kanakamayātapatralakṣmīm* ॥ The proper translation will be:—The pollen that has issued forth from the lotus of the lotus-cluster growing on the yonder piece of land, full of blossoms, whirled about in the sky by the wind, assumes the brauty of an umbrella of gold. (V. 39)] Cf. Peterson, OC VI Leiden, III, 2, 339 ff.

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The Kirātārjunīya served as model for Māgha's epic the Śiśupālavadha², that is likewise esteemed as one of the most important pieces of poerty. [The usually accepted date of Māgha is the latter part of the 7th century A.D. But what appears as fairly certain is that the lower inmost limit to his age is provided by the quotations from his poem by Vāmana (c. 800 A.D.) and Ānandavardhana (900 A. D.). In a stanza found in the Śiśupālavadha, he says that his grand'father Suprabhavadeva was a minister of a king Varmala *(v. v. ll.* Varmalāta, Dharmanābha, Dharmanātha and Nirmalāta), of whom an inscription of c. 625 A.D. exists. But this date and identification of the king have not been proved beyond doubt.]³

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² Edition with the commentary of Mallinātha in NSP, 5th Ed., Bombay 1910, German translation (in prose) of cantos I-XI of C. Schuetz, Bielefeld 1843. Extracts translated by C. Cappeller, Stuttgart, 1915. [Complete German translation according to the commentaries of Vallabhadeva and Mallinātha-Hultzsch, Leipzig, 1929].

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³ [Cf. S. K. De, HSL, pp. 188 ff.]

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Māgha attempts to surpass his model Bhāravi in each one the devices and affectations of subtlety¹. Like Bhāravi in canto IV of the Kirātārjunīya, Māgha tries to show his skill in metrics in canto IV of the Śiśupālavadha. Whilst Bhāravi has used only 19 different types of metres, Māgha uses 23 of them². Again like canto XV that is devoted to the description of the battle and shows artificiality, alliteration and play of words at the most in the Kirātārjunīya, Māgha introduces in his canto XIX, that is devoted to the description of the battle, more and more similar complicated devices. Here we find verses that give a second meaning when read from below, of which the syllables which read according to different devices form all sorts of figures in zigzag way, in a circle etc., and verses in which only particular consonants occur, e.g. the formidable verse.

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¹ Cf. Jacobi, WZKM, 3, 1889, 121 ff., 141 ff. [E. Hultzsch, ZDMG, 72, 1918,; p. 147 shows that he had used also the Bhaṭṭikāvya.]

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² [2. Cf. Belloni-Phillipi—La Metrica degli Indi, Firenze, 1912, ii. p, 55.; Keith, HSL,pp. 130-31; Jacobi, Ind. Stud., XVII. p.444f. and in Verhandl. des V or. Congress, p. 136 f.].

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*jajaujojājijijjāji taṁ tatotitatātitut* ।
*bhābhobhībhābhibhūbhābhūrārārirarirīraraḥ* ॥
"Then the warrior, winner of war, with his heroic valour, the subduer of the extremely arrogant beings, he who has the brilliance of the stars, he who has the brilliance of the vanquisher of fearless elephants, the enemy seated on a chariot, started to fight" (XIX, 3).

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In case it was Bhāravi's endeavour to eulogise Śiva, Māgha pursues the religious objective of extolling Viṣṇu. He too has drawn his material from the Mahābhārata, and that from the section on the slay of Śiśupāla by Kṛṣṇa³. The poet, however, is not entirely dependant upon the legend as he finds it in the Mahābhārata. His main interest lies in descriptions and sketches, that get into motion with predilection towards the erotic domain; nevertheless the subject-matter itself has in the least to do with erotics. Almost half of the twenty cantos of the extant epic has nothing to do with the proper story.

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³ Mahābhār. II, 33-45; see above I, 287; trans. p. 341.

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The second canto offers the poet an opportunity to display his knowledge of nītiśāstra, the science of politics. Here we find several nice aphorisms. Thus for example II, 44 :—

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*anyadā bhūṣaṇaṁ puṁsaḥ kṣamā lajjeva yoṣitaḥ* ।
*parākramaḥ paribhave vaiyātyaṁ surateṣviva* ॥
"Otherwise, patience is decoration of a man
Like bashfulness of a woman;
But it is heroism that adds lustre to man
When in disgrace, like shamelessness
In amorous sports to a woman".
or as II, 86
*nāvalambate daiṣṭikatāṁ na niṣīdati pauruṣe* ।
*śabdārthau satkaviriva dvayaṁ vidvānapekṣate* ॥
"Not exclusively on Fate,
Not wholly on his own manhood,
Does a wise man depend absolutely,
But upon both of them, he does rely equally,
Like a good poet, on both, word and meaning".

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In the matter of selection of his similes Māgha tries to be as much original as possible. Thus he (II, 18) compares the drops of sweat of Balarāma's body, that became reddish on account of his anger towards his enemy, with the stars that appear in the red sky of the evening. The Indian literary critics, however, call the poet "Bell-Māgha"¹ because of his extraordinary sketch in IV, 20, where he compares a mountain with the setting sun on one of its sides and the rising moon on the other to an elephant, having one bell hanging from the back on each of his sides. Māgha is also a master of play of words and in the use of expressions having two meanings. In canto XVI there appears a messenger of Śiśupāla and delivers to Kṛṣṇa his message that is purposely so worded as to bear two meanings—the same stanzas offer an humble apology expressed in courteous words and constitute an impudent declaration of war at the same time².

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¹ Ghaṇṭāmāgha; see Peterson, OC VI Leiden III, 2, 339 ff. [Cf. Mālati Sen. COJ. I, 58 ff.).

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² For example XVI, 2:— *abhidhāya tadā tadapriyaṁ śiśupālonuśayaṁ paraṁ gataḥ* । *bhavatobhimanaḥ samīhate saruṣaḥ kartumupetya mānanām* ॥ "Śiśupāla, having merited your displeasure, in deep regret (in high anger) seeks eagerly (fearlessly) to come before you and pay due homage (slay you)".]

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But the chief credit of Māgha lies in the sphere of erotics.

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The Indian poets cannot fully describe a city without depicting in glowing colours the beauty of the women living in it, and the description of the seasons, of the evening or of the morning helps them in describing the activities of the heroines. Our poet takes all these to the extreme point.

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When he describes a campaign and a military camp (canto V) he does not forget to describe the troop carrying the queen in a chariot and the women of the harem, who are riding horses and donkeys, to bring before our eyes the women who fall fast asleep in their tents on account of fatigue and to tell us how the courtesans are dressing themselves for reception of men. We follow not only the warriors and the elephants even into their bath but also the women; and the poet describes how “water gathers in the deep navel cavities of women, how it is checked back by the high embankment of their hips, how then, producing lovely music, it glides over the banks of their firm breasts and then slowly flows about” (V, 29). This sort of thing may appear unsavoury to the people of the West, but it has certainly delighted very much the Indian readers and listeners. Likewise in canto VI the description of all the six seasons that present themselves in the form of beautiful women, one after another, with the intention of pleasing Viṣṇu appears to the people of the West far-fetched; but the poet has thereby created an opportunity to show his skill in erotic description. To the western mind it appears hardly appropriate, when in the following cantos the Yādavas are reported to be walking with beautiful women in the forest and bathing with them in the pond instead of moving into the field of battle. But the poet utilizes the background of the forest and of the pond for the purpose of repeatedly bringing in erotic descriptions of the thighs, that are as stout as the trunks of elephants, of the heavy hips, of the tight breasts, that are like full pitchers and jumping foals at the same time (VII, 73) etc. of beautiful women. When lastly (at the end of canto VIII) the brilliant-rayed sun-god sees how the Yādavas burst forth in splendour of perfect beauty on account of their bath in the pond, he too wishes to plunge in the water of the Western Ocean. And this gives him the desired opportunity to describe the sunset and rising of the moon in canto IX. But the moon enflames the god of love, and we see again the young damsels preparing themselves for reception of their lovers and sending their eyes and their female messengers of love (IX, 55). Then the advent of the night offers him the welcome opportunity of describing the preliminary orgies of love preceded by a carousal in canto X. But “these people continue to scratch and bite each other when they love one another”, as already remarked by Rueckert. X, 72:—

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*bāhupīḍanakacagrahaṇābhyāmāhatena nakhadantanipātaiḥ* ।
*bodhitastanuśayastaruṇīnāmunmimīla viśadaṁ viṣameṣuḥ* ॥
“By pressings of the arm and tearing of the hair,
By inflicting wound with the nails and the teeth,
The god of love, slumbering in the delicate bodies of women,
Is aroused, and he rubs their bright eyes”.

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But there remains no doubt that he had studied treatises on love. Māgha compares the voluptuous sounds and other noises of the enjoyment of sexual pleasure with the words of Kāmasūtra (X, 75). Next later in canto XI the early morning and the awakening from the night of love are described, and the poet again turns towards the military events. But here too, the poet does not describe the entry of Kṛṣṇa into the city of Pāṇḍavas (XIII, 30 ff.) without depicting in detail the conduct of the women of the city on this occasion. That he is able to describe the horrors of a battle too is probably shown by several verses in canto XVIII. Yet these descriptions read rather as those of a man who draws the picture according to his imagination without having ever seen a battle-field.

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In the manuals of poetics Māgha’s Śiśupālavadha is quoted very frequently¹, from which we can see, as to the extent to which the Indian scholars of poetics held him in high esteem.

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¹ Cf. Jacobi, WZKM 4, 1890, p. 236 ff., and C. Cappeller in Festschrift Kuhn 294ff. [On Māgha’s scholarship in other branches of know-ledge, See E. Hultzsch in Festgable Garbe, p. 78 ff., and Māgha’s Śiśupālavadha, ins. Deutsche uebertragen, p. V.]

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Māgha has been most zealously imitated also by Rājānaka Ratnākara, son of Amṛtabhānu, whose epic Haravijaya² in 50 cantos reveals a thorough study of the Śiśupālavadha¹. The theme of the poem is the defeat of the asura Andhaka [who was born blind of Śiva himself, regained his eye-sight by his penances and became a menace to gods] by Śiva. But the poet utilizes the opportunity of introducing all the descriptions prescribed in a kāvya and of displaying his knowledge of nītiśāstra (in cantos VIII—XVI) as well as of Kāmaśāstra (in canto XXIX). In the description of a battle (in canto XLVII) a hymn to the terrible goddess Durgā (Caṇḍīstotra) has been inserted. Another work of the same poet is Vakroktipañcāśikā or “Fifty Stanzas with Vakroktis” (speeches with two meanings, play of words)².

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² With the commentary of Rājānaka Alaka published in Km. 22, 1890. R. Schmidt. WZKM 29, 259, ff. deals with the book from lexicogra-phical point of view. [On the author see p. 53.]

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¹ Jacobi, loc cit. 240 ff. Ratnākara himself says that he has imitated Bāṇa. K. H. Dhruva, WZKM 5, 1891, 25 ff.

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² Published with the commentary of Vallabhadeva in Km., Part I, 101, 114. C. Bernheimer, ZDMG 63, 1909, 816 ff. gives samples from this work. Ratnākara is the author of one Dhvanigāthāpañjikā. Both the works have been cited by Ruyyaka.

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[Ratnākara tells us that he wrote his Haravijaya under the patronage of prince Cippaḍa Jayāpīḍa (832-44 A. D.), and we learn from Kalhaṇa that he was prominent under Avantivarman, who began his reign in 855 A. D. Hence this furnishes us with information about the age of this writer.

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Under the same king Avantivarman, lived the Buddhist poet Śivasvāmin, the author of the epic Kapphiṇābhyudaya³ written on the model of Bhāravi, Māgha and Ratnākara. The theme of the epic is the legend of the Avadānaśataka of Kapphiṇa, a king of the South, who is an enemy of the king of Śrāvastī but becomes a Buddhist convert.]

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³ [3. See Report on the Search of MSS., Madras, 1893-94, p. 49 ff. Cf. Thomas, Kavi. p. 111 ff.; Keith, HSL, 133 f.; S. K. De, HSL, p. 320. Ed. Gaurishankar, Punjab Univ. Or. Pub. Ser., Lahore 1937.]

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