Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s7: Historical Literature

A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s7

Language
English

Historical Literature

v3.c35.s7.1

¹ Cf. J. F. Fleet, Int. Ant. 30, 1901, 1 ff., W. E. Windisch Geschichte der Sanskritphilologie I, S. 170 ff. (On Lassen, Ind. Altertumskunde II, 1 ff; 40 ff.).

v3.c35.s7.2

In India historical literature too belongs to the class of court poetry. It is often maintained that the Indians did not have any important historical literature to their credit and that they had little taste for history. It is not correct, however. That they had a taste for history is proved by the list of teachers in different Vedic texts and the genealogies in the Mahābhārata and in the purāṇas. Notwithstanding the mythical elements that dominate in them by far, the purāṇas preserve many valuable historical traditions¹.

v3.c35.s7.3

¹ See above I, 169, 257, 266, 319 f. 442. 449; Transl. p. 194, 309, 319, 375 f., 520, 529 : F. E. Pargiter in JRAS 1910, p. ff.

v3.c35.s7.4

Huen-Tsiang affirms that during the time he was here in every Indian city there were annals. Till to-day the Rajputs, Banias and Mewatis have annals that are carefully preserved by Bhāṭas². The Indians have genealogical tables in a form that is unknown in the West. In any case important persons, village-chiefs and even ordinary farmers can produce a family-tree that establishes the widely branched out relationships, often going back to two or three centuries, and is of great importance for settling questions relating to inheritance. Each monastery (maṭha) carefully maintains the order of succession of its principal teachers. A taste for history is proved also by monastic historical works of the Buddhists and the Jainas, who in chronicles and biographies adhere to the life of their saints and the history of their religious communities and have handed them down historically to the extent they have been capable of³. Taste for history is lastly seen also in numerous inscriptions of all the centuries beginning from the time of Aśoka, that are available to us, and in any case they show that the Indians too possessed a taste for associating the present with the past and the future, and thereby they traced the history of their kings in genealogies going back to the most possible extent and that they inscribed the deeds of their patrons for information of coming generations on stone-pillars and rocks, in temples and caves and on copper plates for future ages.

v3.c35.s7.5

² C. V. Vaidya, The Mahābhārata, Bombay 1905, 76 f. In western India there are still court-singers, who recite the praśastipaṭṭas (the panegyric annals) before family circles. Cf. Shankar Pandit, Gaüḍavaho, p. CLXIX note.

v3.c35.s7.6

³ See above II, 167 ff.; 331 f.; Transl. p. 208 ff.; 509 f. "Geschichte des Buddhismus" of Tibetan Tārānātha too rests on Indian sources. He himself mentions a work, written in 2000 ślokas, of Paṇḍita Kṣemendrabhadra of Magadha, in addition to another work Buddhapurāṇa of Indradatta, besides an old biography of ācāryas, the work written by Brāhmaṇa Bhaṭaghaṭi, as the basis of his own work (Tārānātha, Geschichte des Buddhismus ... translated into German by A. Schiefner, p. 281). Historical documents are also the Paṭṭāvalis, the list of Jaina patriarchs, see above II, 331, transl. p. 509; and also Bhandarkar, Report 1883-1884, 14 f., 319 ff.

v3.c35.s7.7

It is true, as Winternitz holds, that in India there has been no Herodotus or likewise a hero such as Livy or Tacitus. What the Indians lacked in was not, however, taste for history, but taste for criticism and for historical truth. And reason of this is that the writers of history were generally either court-poets or religious-minded persons. For the former the main duty was to sing in praise of their princes, to record their and their ancestors' heroic deeds and probably also to invent such ones as never took place. The divine were above all busy either with praise of their sect or in preaching to the community and to cause it to increase.

v3.c35.s7.8

The Indian historical writing was always just a branch of poetry. Chronicles, in which myths and history appear strongly amalgamated, or biographical and historical epics and novels or also poems written in praise of kings are mixed up with historical or semi-historical topics. The Indian historian pursues a course that is altogether different from the one followed by the Greek or the Roman. He will not go deep into the circumstances, set historical facts critically and explain them psychologically; he will entertain and instruct as a poet (kavi), above all teach morals, when he will explain with examples the influences of moral behaviour on the destiny of man¹. All the "Indian historical works", as sources of history, therefore, should be used only with extreme caution. The story told by a court-fool to a Tartar Khān mostly holds good in their case:—the Khān wanted his historian to write down a book on his life and works and wanted to name it as "Thousand and one Truth", to which the court-fool retorted by saying that the more correct title would be "Thousand and one Tales". This too is a fact that the Indian could not write history without beginning from its commencement. For the purpose of getting upto the history of their own age, the authors of the purāṇas begin with the origin of the world, the Buddhist monks with the first Buddha, who is believed to have lived billions of years ago, and the authors of recent historical epics, with the heroes of the Mahābhārata or with gods or demi-gods, from which earthly kings derive their origin. Consequently the admixture of tales and history, that is greater according as the author goes back to an earlier period and is less according as he approaches his own age. Thence it is very much possible that the historian, who knows nothing about the earliest time but to narrate myths and tales, may be entirely dependable for his own and immediately preceding ages.

v3.c35.s7.9

¹ Cf. Stein, Rājatarangiṇī, Trans. I, p. 35 ff.

v3.c35.s7.10

The praśastis, i.e. panegyric poems, too, that have come down to us in inscriptions, are not only historical documents, but are often more or less full-fledged ornate poems, written usually in elaborate metres, and now and then in literary prose too. There are poems composed in accordance with the desire of princes or rich men. They contain information by professional poets (including those who are famous in literature) regarding dedication of temples or other religious or temporal monuments. After a benediction follows usually the genealogy and panegyric description of the donor and the ruling prince, in case the latter is not himself the donor, a description of the monument, of its aim and of the benefit associated with the gift, privileges etc. and at the end is an expression of the wish relative to conservation of the monument, adjuration against possible mischievous person or devastator, a note about the chief builder, who built it, on the priest, who consecrated it, about the poet and about the scribe of the inscription and lastly, unfortunately not always accurate, a statement of the date. By the side of praśastis of 10-12 stanzas there are long poems of hundred or more verses¹. The importance that these inscriptions have for the history of ornate court poetry has already been shown above. Among the inscriptions of the Gupta princes and numerous other praśastis there are found, beside productions of inferior value, many poems, that, measured according to the Indian standard, must be considered as pieces of epic poetry of the first rate. There are two long praśastis that were composed by an insignificant poet Rāma in between 700 and 800 A.D. The fact that he calls himself "prince of poets" (kavīśvara) and says about himself that he composed this hymn of praise when he was young and boasts that the goddess Sarasvatī came to live in his mouth-lotus even before he had forgotten the taste of his mother's milk will prove little. More important it is that a first rate scholar like Bühler, the editor and publisher of the inscription², describes him as a poet of much talent and learning. He has for example composed a stotra in 14 stanzas, in which each one can be interpreted in a manner that it will be applicable to both Śiva and his spouse Gaurī at the same time. Rare words and forms go to prove that he had assiduously studied grammar and lexicon. Another full-fledged poetical inscription is that of Lalitasuradeva of the 9th century A. D.¹.

v3.c35.s7.11

¹ Cf. Buhler, WZKM 2, 1888, 86 ff.

v3.c35.s7.12

² Ep. Ind. 1, 97 ff.

v3.c35.s7.13

¹ Ind. Ant. 25, 1896, 177 ff. A great collection of poetical inscriptions, of which a major part consists of records of gifts of land, is included in the Prācīnalekhamālā, published in Km. 34, 1892; 64, 1897; 80, 1903.

v3.c35.s7.14

One of the earliest historical epics is the Prākritkāvya Gaüḍavaha² of Vākpatirāja, the chief poet in the court of King Yaśovarman of Kanauj. It was apparently written after the death of the king in about 750 A. D. The work is more a panegyric rather than a historical poem, although it was written to celebrate the slay of a Gauḍa prince by the poet's patron, who was himself overthrown and killed not much later (c. 740 A.D.) by Lalitāditya of Kashmir. It contains full necessary information regarding military exploits of warriors and is replete with so many pictures of landscapes, descriptions of seasons, royal relationships etc. interwoven with mythical narrations. Vākpatirāja is more original than Sanskrit poets, inasmuch as he describes also scenes from rural life that do not occur elsewhere. He keeps himself aloof from play on words and puns. On the contrary long compounds are not seldom. But the text that is available to us is probably just an extract from the original work, from which pure historical data were excluded outright for the purpose of retaining only the "pearls" of poetry, the poetical descriptions etc.³.

v3.c35.s7.15

² Edited by Shankar P. Pandit, BSS No. 34, 1887. Cf. Bühler, WZKM 1, 1887, 324 ff. 2, 1888, 328 ff.; cf. Smith, JRAS 1908, pp. 765-78. The commentary of Haripāla is almost a Sanskrit rendering from Prākrit. [In the opinion of Keith (HSL, p. 150) Hertel's views (Asia Major 1) on Bhavabhūti and Vākpati carry no conviction.]

v3.c35.s7.16

³ That is the more probable assumption of Jacobi, GGA, 1888, 61 ff. Shankara Pandit believes that the text that we have may just be a torso that constituted merely the introduction to the proper work.

v3.c35.s7.17

An epic, of which its real theme is fabulous, but refers to historical names and events, and hence deserves to be mentioned as an historical work in the true sense is the Navasāhasāṅkacarita⁴ of Padmagupta or Parimala. The poem has 18 cantos and relates the mythical theme of the winning the princess Śaśiprabhā, daughter of the Nāga king. It is written by the poet for the purpose of glorification of his patron, the king Sindhurāja Navasāhasaṅka of Mālva. The Indian court poets, of course, often have the tendency to “change the historical events of the most recent past into myths”¹ on purely poetical grounds. So in this work too an historical essence remains in narration of the myth. The poem may have been written in about 1005 A.D.².

v3.c35.s7.18

⁴ Published by V. S. Islāmpurkar, BSS No. 53, 1895, Cf. G. Bühler and Th. Zachariae, Ueber das the Navasāhasāṅkadevacarita of Padmagupta or Parimala in SWA 1888. The work has been cited by Ruyyaka. [An account of the Paramāra dynasty is given in the poem in X, 54-102; See Bühler and Zachariae, Reprint p. 24.]

v3.c35.s7.19

¹ Buhler and Zachariae ibide p. 48 f. Such mythologising representation we find even in inscriptions.

v3.c35.s7.20

² Cf. Buhler, EP. Ind. 1, 222 ff. 232; Duff 100; Peterson, Śubh. 51 ff.

v3.c35.s7.21

Bilhaṇa’s Vikramāṅkadevacarita³ is the history of the Cālukya princes. It begins with a myth about the origin of the dynasty of this king. In it God Śiva appears always when the king has done anything that is not strictly moral. Here the king has a fairy (Vidyādharī) as his bride. This work too goes to show that poets in India have had always the fancy for dressing even historical events in mythical garbs. The book narrates the history of the princes of the Cālukya dynasty of Kalyāṇa Someśvara I, Someśvara II, and particularly of Vikramāditya VI, who ruled from 1076 to 1127 A. D. The chief objective of Bilhaṇa, however, is to show his skill as a poet, to follow all the rules of poetics and to extol his heroes exuberantly. Although the events narrated by him are historical, as is proved by many Cālukya inscriptions, we get here a distorted picture, since he always exaggerates. Thus he assures us that in each and every campaign of the Cālukyas against the Colas the latter were completely annihilated, although very soon we are told by him that fresh movements of the erstwhile enemies made a more extensive campaign necessary. Even the duration of time that intervened between the different events is not stated accurately, and the poet always says ‘after some time’, ‘after many days’, etc. The historian gives place to the poet. Thus for example, Bilhaṇa tells us that when this king was born flowers fell from the heaven, Indra’s drum was sounded and gods in the heaven became happy,—but nonetheless he does not tell us the date of his birth.

v3.c35.s7.22

³ Published by G. Bühler, BSS Nr. 14, 1875. The German translation of A. Haack (printed in 1897 at Ratibor, but was not available in a bookshop ) not was known to W. Cf. A. V. V. Ayyar, Ind. Ant. XLVIII, 114 H., 133 ff. [Editions also by M. L. Nagar, 1934 and V. S. Bhāradvāja, both printed at Vārāṇasī ]

v3.c35.s7.23

As an epic poet, he tarries when he finds an occasion to describe any event. So he devotes three cantos to the marriage of Vikrama with Candralekhā and describes the beauty of the bride in detail. In the description of the ceremony of selection of her husband by the bride (svyaṁvara) he has followed the Raghuvaṁśa of Kālidāsa as his model. One of the most beautiful and attractive places in the poem is the narration of the death of Āhavamalla, father of Vikrama in canto IV¹.

v3.c35.s7.24

¹ A metrical English rendering of this passage is given in the Ind. Ant. 5, 1876, 324 ff.

v3.c35.s7.25

In canto XVIII the poet gives his autobiography. Here he describes his native land, particularly his native village Khonamukha, in a manner so true to nature that Bühler², who visited the place, has expressed his admiration at the exactness of the description. The village clings so closely to the hills of the Himālaya that it could not have been described more accurately than in the words of the poet, who has designated it as "a coquettish ornament of the Himālaya". About his father Jyeṣṭhakalasa he reports that he wrote a commentary on the Mahābhāṣya. Both of his brothers were scholars and authors. About his ownself he boasts that he had ardently and diligently studied the Vedas, the Vedāṅgas, grammar upto the Mahābhāṣya and poetics and that the fame of his poetry had spread all over the world. He says not altogether unassumingly "there is no village, no province, no capital town, no forest and no grove, or place that Sarasvatī has sanctified, where the wise and the fool, the old and the young, man and woman do not in a body recite his poem with a thrill of joy" (XVIII, 89). He had travelled far and wide, in the same manner as young scholars and poets in India have the tendency to do, in different courts and places of pilgrimage. He visited the holy cities of Mathurā, Kanauj, Allahabad and Vārāṇasī. For a long time he stayed with a prince Karṇa of Ḍāhala, where he defeated the poet Gaṅgādhara in a literary contest and composed a poem on Rāma. After travelling much he arrived at Kalyāṇa, where King Vikramāditya conferred on him the title Vidyāpati ("Master of Science"). and presented to him one blue umberella and an elephant.

v3.c35.s7.26

² Report 5f.

v3.c35.s7.27

High as a tower, Rājata raṅgiṇī¹, “the River of Kings” stands above all other similar productions of Indian literature, equally as a work of history and of poetical composition. In other words it is the history of the kings of Kashmir of the poet Kalhaṇa². Kalhaṇa was the son of the minister Caṇpaka, who played not an unimportant r^ole in the court of King Harṣa (1089-1101). He was probably born towards the beginning of the 12th century A.D. and completed his work in the year 1148. As a Brāhmaṇa by birth he acquired a basic literary culture. He was very well read, especially in the Mahābhārata, and had studied also Bāṇa’s Harṣacarita, Bilhaṇa’s Vikramāṅkadevacarita and works like Varāhamihira’s Bṛhatsaṁhitā. He manifests his literary taste on each occasion. By religion he was a devotee of Śiva. He admires with predilection the kings with Śivaite disposition and whenever, about any of his patrons he says that he was a devotee of Śiva, he often uses such an expression in the same sense in which an English man uses the word “Christian”, when he refers to some respectable person. Still he has much sympathy for Buddhism. He praises Aśoka and other kings for their establishment of monasteries and erection of stūpas, exhibits a good knowledge of Buddhist teachings and refers in a respectful manner to Jinas and to Bodhisattvas. But that does not deter him from jeering at the “monk nuisance” brought to an end by King Candradeva (I, 184). He was a highly cultured and independently thinking person. Although he was brought up in court-environment, he was neither a courtier nor a court-poet. He had a critical independent view about characters. Many severely biting words are uttered in reference to Brāhmaṇas, as also against officials. Strict in his principles, he often uses severe words for censure. He speaks with greater contempt about Ḍāmaras, a class of gentry or “younker” whom he does not consider better than “robbers” (dasyu).

v3.c35.s7.28

¹ The first critical edition we owe to M.A. Stein (Bombay 1892), from whom we have also a complete English translation with valuable annextures (Introduction, Notes, Appendices) which have brought the importance of the work for history, geography and ethnography of Kashmir, into the correct clear light (Westminster 1900, 2 vols.). Cf. Winternitz, WZKM 16, 1902, 405 ff.; Oldenberg, Aus dem alten Indien, Berlin 1910, 81 ff., Marie Von Bunsen in “Nord und Sud” 1915, 327 ff. On Kalhaṇa’s importance as an historian see Buhler, Report 52 ff.; LXVI ff., where the earlier writings of N. H. Wilson, A. Cunningham, Ch. Lassen, and A. Troyer have been evaluated and Shankar Pandit, Gauḍavaho, Introd, p. CLXI ff. E. Hultzsch, Ind. Ant. 18, 1889, 65 ff., 97 ff. gives extracts with translation from book I and in Ind. Ant. 40, 1911, 97 ff.; 42, 1913, 301 ff. and ZDMG 69, 1915, 129 ff. he has made contribution towards its textual criticism. Stein’s edition has superceded all other editions, including the one of Durgāprasāda BSS No. 35, 51, 54; [vol. (I-VII), vol. 2 (VIII), vol. 3 (Supplements of Jonarāja, Śrīvara and Prājyabhaṭṭa, 1892, 1894, 1896. The editio princeps with three supplements was published by the Asiatic Society of the Bengal, Calcutta, 1835.]

v3.c35.s7.29

² We know Kalhaṇa only as the author of the Rājata raṅgiṇī. A kāvya Jayasiṁhābhyudaya too is attributed to him: see Peterson, OC VI Leiden 1883, III, 2, 361: [the reference is to Ratnākara’s citation in his Sāra samuccaya. The sanskrit form of this name is Kalyāṇa, by which name he is mentioned in Maṅkha’s Śrīkaṇṭhacarita XXV, 80 ff. Cf. A. Stein, Rājatar., transl. p. 12 f.]

v3.c35.s7.30

Kalhaṇa specifically says in the beginning of his work that it is the work of the poet to write history : (I, 4)

v3.c35.s7.31

*konyaḥ kālamatikrāntaṁ netuṁ pratyakṣatāmṁkṣamaḥ* ।
*kaviprajāpatīṁstyaktvā ramyanirmāṇaśālinaḥ* ॥
“Like Prajāpati, capable to bring forth lovely creation: who else other than a poet can place the past before the eyes of men.”

v3.c35.s7.32

To this he adds (I, 7)

v3.c35.s7.33

*ślāghyaḥ sa eva guṇavānrāgadveṣabahiṣkṛtāḥ* ।
*bhūtārthakathane yasya stheyasyeva sarasvatī* ॥
“The noble-minded (poet) is alone worthy of praise, whose word, like that of a judge, keeps free from love or hatred in relating the facts of the past”.

v3.c35.s7.34

In fact Kalhaṇa’s statement, when he too perhaps is not always wholly impartial, throughout creates the impression that he endeavours to describe not only the long past times, but also the events of his own and near-by ages *sine ira et studio*, and his opinion is mostly inspired by high moral cosmic philosophy. Throughout in his narrative the poet inserts moral maxims. For him the real objective of writing history consists in teaching of dharma and morality. To him, as to any Indian, that success and failure of present life have their cause in the good and evil acts (karman) of the previous existence is an incontestable fact. He is wholly in keeping with the common Indian opinion to the extent that he believes in magic and witchcraft. When he speaks about the kings, who are ruined, either on account of witchcraft or due to the curse of a Brāhmaṇa, he does it with the same conviction with which he would narrate that they perished either with sword or on account of poison. He is Indian in this respect as well that his chronology of earlier ages is often improbable. He makes King Raṇāditya rule for 300 years — a thing that is not credible. If we are to fix the date of Aśoka according to Kalhaṇa, we shall have to set it at 1260 B.C.¹. With true Indian credulity he narrates all myths and legends that he found for earlier ages in his sources and in traditions, so all the wonderful snake-legends, that are associated with the earliest history of Kashmir.

v3.c35.s7.35

¹ Cf. Stein, Rājatarangiṇī Transl. 1, p. 53 f; Fleet, Ind. Ant. 30, 11f. , 14. It is significant that many pandits in India still understand by the term “history” an essay entitled “History of Kashmir” of Pandit Anand Koul in the JASB 6, 1910, 195 ff., where the “History of Kashmir” under 47 sovereigns based of the Nīlamatapurāṇa [ed. Ramalal Kanjilal and Jagaddhar Zadoo, Lahore 1924; ed. K. St. J. M. de Vreese, Leiden (Brill), 1936] and the Rājātaraṅgiṇī is presented with such “accurate” dates as: Gonanda I 3120-3103 B.C., Dāmodara I 3103-3090 B.C. etc. down up to Bhagavant 1459-1445 B.C.

v3.c35.s7.36

On the other hand, however, he has not utilized the literary sources, without first examining them critically. He is not content merely with the study of earlier works on Kashmir, but he has made use of inscriptions, genealogical tables and memoires of important personalities, examined coins and monuments and has interested himself in folk-lore, proverbs and legends. In short, he was an accurate investigator into antiquities. By general admission Kalhaṇa is a trustworthy guide for the history of his own age and for that of a little former times.

v3.c35.s7.37

The poet Kalhaṇa is a master of the art of presentation. He knows to delineate the sketch of a person drawn from his actual life and does not follow merely any set pattern or type. In this respect he stands apart from other Indian poets.

v3.c35.s7.38

How lively stand before us the personalities such as the cruel and vicious, but cunning and energetic queen Diddā (VI, 176 ff.) or the good-natured weak Ananta (VII, 142) ? With much humour and biting sarcasm he describes the people of the lower society who attain high offices and powers from insignificant positions in life without any special merit. One such character, for example, is Kāyastha Bhadreśvara, who at first was a market-gardener, butcher and fuel-seller; for living he had hung at the back of officials, carrying their bags and ink-bottles, while with a rough woollen cloth he rubbed his (own) back, till Tuṅga, the prime minister of Queen Diddā, made him his assistant, and who later himself became the prime minister (VII, 38 ff., 106).

v3.c35.s7.39

Kalhaṇa shows himself as a pioneer poet also in many episodes, descriptions, sketches and comparisons. Thus for example we may read his presentation of the tragic end of King Yudhiṣṭhira I at the end of the book I : “like a vulture on a carcass” did the violent enemies fall upon the empire of the weakly king. He was compelled to leave his own country, while his enemies carried away his wives and treasures “just as the tree which falls from the top of a high mountain is stripped quickly by boulders of its creepers, fruits and the rest” (I, 368). We may read also the description of a famine, that occurred as a consequence of heavy snowfall, that he compares to the “grim laughter of the Death” (II, 19), or the story of the wonderful and horrible restoration to life of Sandhimati by the witches (II, 82 ff.).

v3.c35.s7.40

It is, however, particularly the realistic descriptions of books VII and VIII that present to us Kalhaṇa as a true poet. Impressive is the description of the tragic death of Sūryamatī (VII, 472 ff.). This prominent lady was the wife of King Ananta. She had taken under her control the weak king and the reins of administration, so much so that she compelled him even to forego the throne in favour of her son Kalaśa. This had had an evil consequence and led the father and the son to strife and conflict. Several times cunning Suryamatī succeeded in bringing about temporary peace. But after a short reconciliation Kalaśa stepped into open enemity against his father, whose position now became wholly untenable. One day there took place a violent scene between Ananta and his wife : he rebuked her bitterly and even expressed his doubt regarding Kalaśa being his legitimate son. The insulted lady got offended and she overwhelmed him with abuses. Then the deeply hurt king again went into despair and committed suicide. Suryamatī, however, then decided to follow him unto death as a satī. Then in a solemn manner she cursed each one of them who had ruined them and had caused dissension among them: then with an oath she proved herself above suspicion in the matter of being faithful to her husband and burnt herself with smiling eyes in the flames of the funeral pile, and (VII, 479).

v3.c35.s7.41

*ajāyata nabhovahnijvālāvalayamālitam ।*
*tadāgamotsave dattasindūramiva nirjaraiḥ ॥*
“The sky became encircled (and reddened) with sheets of flames, just as if gods, in order to celeberate her arrival, had covered (it) with minium”.

v3.c35.s7.42

Actually the master-pieces of character-painting are the portraits of King Harṣa (VII, 869 ff) and King Sussala (VIII, 482 ff.) designed by Kalhaṇa. The same poet shows the style of the Rāmāyaṇa or that of the Mahābhārata in his story of King Harṣa, as he narrates it in book VII. Even the appearance of this monarch is impressive. Usually he shows himself like a contended lion with his long beard in disorder and moustaches hanging about his face; his shoulders are like those of a bull; he has a wide breast and he speaks with a thundering voice. Even gods would lose their presence of mind before him. But his character is full of contradictions. He is a model of justice. Big bells are hanging in all the four directions of his palace, that can be rung by anybody who has something to request for¹. He is always very liberal, rewards his servants richly and beggars get resettled by his gifts and they become capable of maintaining others.

v3.c35.s7.43

¹ VII, 879. Cf. above II, 172f. Transl. p. II, 215. [Cf. also V. R. R. D i k s h i t a r, ABOR I, 15; p. 218 ff.]

v3.c35.s7.44

He and his wife visit monasteries and temples. Bands of poets and learned men, including among others the poet Bilhaṇa, live in his court. Harṣa himself is highly gifted, expert in several languages, a high class singer and poet².

v3.c35.s7.45

² The relevant words are -- > *somānuṣāṇāmapi yatpratibhābhaṅgakāryabhūt ||*

v3.c35.s7.46

*prasannasiṁhaviprekṣī nīcaśmaśrucchaṭāñcitaḥ ।*
*vṛṣaskandho mahābāhuḥ śyāmalohitavigrahaḥ ॥* (VII, 877)
*vyūḍhavakṣo kṣāmamadhyo meghaghoṣagabhīravāk ।* (VII, 878)

v3.c35.s7.47

But the same Harṣa is cruel and tyrannical. In course of time he falls more under the influence of his wicked advisors in this respect. A complete train of his relations falls victim to his murderous design. A kind of Caesar's madness develops in him. He oppresses his subjects as if it be his vocation (*nityakṛtyopamam*).

v3.c35.s7.48

In VII, 1204:—

v3.c35.s7.49

*alpāpakāramapi pārśvagataṁ nihanti*
*nīco na dūrasamāgasamapyarātim |*
*śvā nirdiśatyupalamantikamāpatantaṁ*
*tattyāginaṁ na tu vidūragamugraroṣaḥ ||*

v3.c35.s7.50

“A low minded person strikes down him who is close by even for a small fault, but not the enemy afar off, who has committed an enormous offence. (Thus too) a dog in mighty fury bites the stone which hits, but not the person who has thrown it from a distance”. He plundered the treasures of temples and appointed one of his own officials as “supervisor of temple-destruction”. After he had done away with all his relations he himself put into the altar the ranks of the other people. His army deserted him and the king wandered about and was obliged to seek shelter in the

v3.c35.s7.51

*siṁhadvāre mahāghaṇṭāscaturdiśamabandhayat |*
*jñātuṁ vijñaptikāmān prāptāṁstadvādyasamjñayā ||* (VII, 879)
*anyopajīvyatvaṁ prāpustasyārthitvena mārgaṇāḥ |* (VII, 932)
*vaktuṁ nāstyeva sāmarthyaṁ vyaktaṁ vācaspaterapi*
*gītamākarṇya tedyāpi tasya vāggreyakāriṇaḥ |*
*vipakaṣairapi pakṣmāgraluṭhadbāṣpodabindubhiḥ ||* (VII, 942)
The passages have been translated as:—
“He used to look around like a pleased lion; his bushy beard was hanging down low; his shoulders were like those of a bull, his arms great, and his body of a dark reddish complexion; he had a broad chest with a narrow waist, and his voice was deep like thunder. Thus even super-human beings would have lost (before him) their presence of mind.
At the palace-gate (siṁhadvāra) he hung up big bells in all four directions, to be informed by their sound of those who had come with desire of making representations . . . . . by addressing their prayers to him...beggars became able to support others....clearly even the Lord of speech does not have the ability to speak...
“Even to this day if one of the songs which he composed for the voice is heard tears roll on the eye-lashes even of his enemies”.

v3.c35.s7.52

houses of his ministers but none of them offered him any accommodation. At last he is detected in the hut of a beggar; the soldiers surround and kill him. The poet says that nobody has had enjoyed so much of power and met such a shameful end (VII, 1713.). But later, after he has described the end of Sussala, he says in a wrathful humour (VIII, 1331):—

v3.c35.s7.53

*tāṁstān kāpuruṣān harṣadevodantātprabhṛtyalam* ।
*smṛtyā ca kīrtayitvā ca kṛtabhāragrahā iva* ॥
*jātaduṣkṛtasaṁsparśāḥ khedātpartuṁ na śaknumaḥ* ॥
*pāpātpāpīyasāṁ yeṣāṁ nāmagrahaṇasāhasam* ॥
“By recording and describing rogues of various sorts in plenty from King Harṣa’s story onwards, we have become hardened like load-carriers. Yet we cannot venture to name those persons who participated in the murder of Sussala, who were worse than wicked, owing to the pain which is caused by touching upon their evil deeds.”

v3.c35.s7.54

Extraordinarily valuable is Rājātaraṅgiṇī as a cultural historical source. The descriptions that are true to life and those that have been, in at least the last two books, taken from the actual life of Kalhaṇa permit us to get an insight into Indian cultural conditions of the 11th and 12th centuries, as few works of the Indian literature do. The work is an extraordinarily rich source of information, especially for a knowledge of the religious conditions, the nature of the sects, Kashmirian popular faiths, the snake-cult, burning of widows, etc. We learn from him about law, administration, affairs of the officials, etc. too¹.

v3.c35.s7.55

¹ Cf. Jolly in Gurupūjākaumudī, p. 84 ff., Winternitz, *WZKM* 16, 1902, 411 ff. and “Die Frau in den indischen Religionen” (Archiv für Frauenkunde III, 1917, Special offprint, Leipzig 1920), p. 66 ff. [On the sources of Kalhaṇa’s information, see S. K. De, HSL, p. 355.]

v3.c35.s7.56

The great work of Kalhaṇa was continued in the 15th and the 16th centuries by chroniclers. Jonarāja wrote one Rājātaraṅgiṇī that extends the history of the Kashmirian princes down upto the reign of Sultān Zainu-l-’ābidīn [1417-67 A.D.]. The author died in 1459 A.D. before completion of the work. His disciple Śrīvara wrote the Jaina-Rājataraṅgiṇī, which, in four chapters, contains an account of the years beginning from 1459 upto 1486 A.D. Śrīvara has slavishly imitated Kalhaṇa. Both of the works stand in every respect deep below their model. Deeper below stands the Rājāvalipatākā, that was begun by Prājyabhaṭṭa and was completed by his desciple Śuka after Kashmir was annexed by Emperor Akbar in 1586 A.D.¹.

v3.c35.s7.57

¹ These chronicles have been published with the Edition princeps of Kalhaṇa's Rājatarangiṇī, Calcutta 1835, Cf. Buhler, Report 61; Stein, Rājatarangiṇī Transl. Vol. II, p. 373 f. [S. K. De, HSL, p. 359.]

v3.c35.s7.58

Other historical or half-historical works deserve to be mentioned briefly. In the first half of the 12th century Jalhaṇa, [metioned by Maṅkhaka (XXV, 75) ], in his poem Somapālavilāsa has described the life of King Somapāla of Rājapurī near Kashmir who had fought against Sussala, the Kashmirian prince². Towards the close of the 12th century A.D. was written the historical poem Pṛthvīrājavijaya³ that describes the seize of Ajmīr and Ḍilhī by Cāhumāna King Pṛthvīrāja, who died in 1193 A.D. [ The work that is not complete ] may have been written between 1178 and 1200 A.D. and was popular in the 14th and 15th centuries⁴. In his epic poem Kumārapālacarita, called also Dvyāśrayakāvya⁵, that is written partly in Sanskrit and partly in Prākrit, the learned Jaina monk Hemacandra proves himself simultaneously a poet, "historian" and grammarian in the two languages. The poem has 20 cantos in Sanskrit and 8 cantos in Prākrit. The first seven cantos are to serve as illustrations to the rules of the first seven sections of his Sanskrit grammar, whilst the eighth canto stands in a similar relation to the author's grammar of Prākrit. The work contains a history of the Caulukyas of Aṇhilvāḍ [Aṇahillapura] and particularly of Kumārapāla. In cantos XVI to XX, that are devoted to the latter, this prince is extolled above all as a pious Jaina, who prohibited bloody sacrifices and trading in flesh, got errected Jaina temples etc. The last two cantos contain moral and religious reflections. From the concluding portion of the work it is evident that Kumārapāla was full in life and at the peak of his fame when the poem was written. Hence it could not have been written before 1163 A.D.¹.

v3.c35.s7.59

² Rājatar. VIII, 621 ff. Jalhaṇa has been referred to by Maṅkha as a member of the sabhā of his brother Alaṁkāra (see above, p. 86). [Cf. Krishnamacharya p. 44.]

v3.c35.s7.60

³ [ 3. Ed. S. K. Belvalkar, Calcutta 1914-22. The editor thinks that its author was one Jayānaka Jayaratha (1st quarter of the 13th century A.D.). In V. 50 he has been cited. Recent edition of the work has been brought out G. H. Ojha and S. C. Guleri (Ajmer 1941) with the commentary of Jonarāja ].

v3.c35.s7.61

⁴ Cf. Buhler, Report 62 ff.; J. Morison, WZKM 7, 1893, 188 ff.; Har Bilas Sarda, JRAS 1913, 259 ff. There is only one MS. of the work, in which the name of the author does not occur. Jonarāja wrote a commentary on this work in the 15th century.

v3.c35.s7.62

⁵ [ 5. The Prākṛtadvyāśrayakāvya with the commentary of Pūrṇakalaśagaṇi editied by S. P. Pandit, BSS. 60, 1900: the Sanskrit Dvyāśrayakāvya; 5th ed. by A. V. Kathava'te, BSS 69, 1915 and 76, 1921 with the commentary of Abhayatilakagaṇi.]

v3.c35.s7.63

¹ Bürgess, Ind. Ant. 4, 1875, 71 ff., 110ff., 232ff., 265 ff. gives extracts from the Sanskrit poem. Cf. Bühler, Hemacandra, p. 18 f., 43. [There is another Kumārapālacarita by Jinasimhasūri, composed in 1265 A.D. (ed. Hiralal Hamsarāj, Jamnagar; yet another Kumārapālacarita by Cāritrasundara, Bhavanagar 1914. Cf. S. K. De HSL. p. 362. See the same on other works of Kumārapāla.]

v3.c35.s7.64

The Kīrtikaumudī², a biography of Vastupāla, minister of the Vāghelā kings Lavaṇaprasāda and Vīradhavala, written by Someśvaradeva, who lived between 1179 and 1262 A.D., covers the history of the Vāghelā dynasty of Gujarat. The poet, who refers to himself as the chief priest of the king of Gujarat, is also the author of many inscriptions that are dated 1241 and 1255 A.D. One of these inscriptions contains a stanza from Kīrtikaumudī. Although the work is simply a panegyric of a liberal minister, who had literary interest, it is not devoid of poetical worth and brings to our knowledge the history of the Caulukyas³. It throws much side-light on the life of eminent Indians of the 13th century. Someśvaradeva is the author also of the romantic epic Surathotsava⁴ in 15 cantos. Though the plot of the poem is fictitious it has perhaps a historical background. In the last canto the poet gives the history of his family, as is usual in historical and romantic epics, and concludes it with stanzas written in praise of Vastupāla. To the same minister Vastupāla, who was a pious Jaina, is connected somewhat younger but written in the same 13th century, Sukṛtasaṁkīrtana of Arisiṁha⁵. This "Praise of the Noble Acts" is an epic in 11 cantos, evidently of mediocre merit, but not an unimportant poem for the history of Gujarat.

v3.c35.s7.65

² Published by A. V. Kathavate, BSS No. 25, 1883. The German transl: by A. Haack, Kīrttikaumudī, der Mondschein des Ruhmes, (printed and published by R. Müntzberg, Ratibor 1892) is not to be found in the market.

v3.c35.s7.66

³ Cf. Bühler. Ind. Ant. 6, 1877, 186 ff., Ep. Ind. 1, 20 ff.

v3.c35.s7.67

⁴ Published in Km. 73, 1902.

v3.c35.s7.68

⁵ Cf. G Buhler, Das Sukṛtasaṁkīrtana des Arisiṁha, SWA 1889. [Ed. Jaina Ātmānanda Sabhā Series, Bhavnagar 1917. See also S. K. De, Sanskrit Poetics, I, p. 210 f.]

v3.c35.s7.69

There exists one Vastupālacarita written on the life of Vastupāla by Jinaharṣa. Vastupāla has been presented here as a statesman, warrior, philanthropist, constructor of temples, protector of poets and poet. He got established a big library in which he collected the largest possible number of literary works. Stanzas written by him are cited in anthologies. His great epic (mahākāvya) Naranārāyaṇānanda¹ describes the friendship of Arjuna and Kṛṣṇa and abduction of Subhadrā by Arjuna. It was written in between 1220 and 1230 A.D.

v3.c35.s7.70

¹ [1. GOS II. 1916.]

v3.c35.s7.71

[The epic Vasantavilāsa mahākāvya of Bālacandrasūri² makes a mention of the death of Vastupāla. The poet who is his contemporary describes his battles and his pilgrimages as well as his generosity.]

v3.c35.s7.72

² [2. Ed. C D. Dalal in GOS, 7, 1917. On Bālacandra, see above II, trans. p. 547, 548, 591.]

v3.c35.s7.73

The historical epics are not always dedicated to rulers or ministers. Such one is the Jagaḍūcarita of Sarvānanda, the biography of a simple merchant who did much for his native town in Gujarat when he got the walls of the city built anew and during the terrible famine of the years 1256-1258 he worked much for mitigation of the trouble. Although the work has only seven cantos, it is called a "great epic" (mahākāvya) and shows the same deficiency in the matter of language, poetics and metrics, as other Sanskrit poems of Jaina monks of later centuries do. The author may have lived 80 to 100 years after the events of the second half of the 14th century described by him. The wealthy merchant Jagaḍū is above all an ideal Jaina layman and is extolled as such. In the history of this merchant wonderful stories and legends have been interlaced exactly in the same manner as would have been done with respect to some king or saint. In any case, however, we find in the work a nucleus of history, as has been shown by Bühler³.

v3.c35.s7.74

³ Indian Studies I, the Jagaḍūcharita of Sarvānanda, a historical romance from Gujarāt, SWA 1892.

v3.c35.s7.75

[In the second half of the same 14th century the poetess Gaṅgādevī wrote the historical epic Madhurāvijaya also called Vīrakamparāyacarita¹. The writer was the queen of Kampaṇa of Kanjeeveram (c. 1367 A.D.) and she has described in it the historic deeds of her husband, including his march against King Campa of Kāñcī and against the Muhammadan ruler of Madurārājya.]

v3.c35.s7.76

¹ [1. Ed. Harihara Śāstrī and Śrīnivāsa Śāstrī Trivendrum, 1916.]

v3.c35.s7.77

The historical poem Hammīrakāvya of Jaina Nayacandra was written in the 15th century. In it the poet has described the heroic acts of Hammīra, who was killed in his battle against the Muhammadans. The poem breathes severe hatred for the Muhammadans, whilst it describes the tragic death of Hammīra. Before he met his heroic end, his wives and daughters burnt themselves².

v3.c35.s7.78

² Cf. N. J. Kirtane, Ind. Ant., 8, 1879, 55 ff. [and also Bombay 1879.]

v3.c35.s7.79

[An historical epic of the 16th cetury is the Rāṣṭrauḍhavaṁśa kāvya of Rudrakavi (published in the Gaekwad's Oriental series, No. V, 1917). In 20 cantos it narrates the history of Bāgulas of Mayūragiri from the beginning of the Rāṣṭrauḍha dynasty down upto Nārāyaṇashah, the patron of the poet.]

v3.c35.s7.80

The panegyric poem of King Bhāvasimha, a contemporary of Emperor Akbar, is the Bhāvavilāsa³ of Nyāyavācaspati Rudra. To the "historical poems" belong lastly also the biographies, like Rasikamaraṇa, an epic in 18 cantos written by Raghunātha in the 16th century, in which the life and activity of the Vaiṣṇava teacher Durvāsas are praised⁴.

v3.c35.s7.81

³ Published in Km., Part II, 1886, 111-126. This very Rudra is also the author of one Bhramaradūta [cf. Haraprasad Śāstrī, JASB 6, 1910, 31 ff.]

v3.c35.s7.82

⁴ Cf. Aufrecht, Bodl. Cat. I, 148 ff. [We may here make a mention of Vīrabhānūdayakāvya, a poem in 12 cantos, containing historical dates of Rewa of the Moghul period, of Mādhava (cf. Hīrānanda Śāstrī in the Mem. of the Arch. Soc. of Ind., No. 21), and Raghunāthābhyudaya (ed. T. R. Chintamani, Madras 1934), a poem in 12 cantos of the poetess Rāmabhadrāmbā, in which certain incidents from the life of Raghunātha of Tanjore are described and which was written in the 17th century A.D.

v3.c35.s7.83

The number of historical poems that we have is comparatively small. But it cannot be said that because more such works are not available to us probably they did not exist at all. On the other hand, the fact is that interest for old myths and heroic tales has always been greater than for temporal lords, and, therefore, such works particularly when a dynasty became extinct, were no more copied.

v3.c35.s7.84

The epics were probably most suitable for glorification of the activities of the patrons. Yet there are several chronicles that have been written in prose¹. A modern prose work of this type is the Kṣitīśavaṁśāvalicarita², in which the history of the ancestors of King Kṛṣṇacandra of Navadvīpa in Bengal, his battles with the Muhammadans and the fate of the individual rulers, including also all sorts of court stories, anecdotes and even fabulous stories of miracles have been narrated. This chronicle, apparently written in the middle of the 18th century A.D., reaches upto the year 1728, that is the year of accession to the throne of Kṛṣṇacandra, but breaks so abruptly that it is hardly complete. The work is written in simple prose, that is marked by a number of very long compounds for the purpose of giving it the appearance of literary prose.

v3.c35.s7.85

¹ On the historical novel Harṣacarita, see below in the section “Ornate Novels”.

v3.c35.s7.86

² A Chronicle of the Family of Rājā Kṛishṇachandra of Navadvīpa, Bengal. Ed. and translated by W. Pertsch, Berlin 1852.

Cites (21)