A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s7.14

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.