A History of Indian Literature v3.c35.s8.44

v3.c35.s8.44

The motely contents of “seven hundred stanzas” already point to the fact that here we do not have before us the work of a single writer, but that of a compiler. On the other hand, however, the songs show such a striking unified characteristic that we can in no case consider Hāla, to whom is attributed the collection, merely a compiler of an anthology, but rather a gifted redactor, who made the selection with dexterity and skill and probably gave to the stanzas the final poetical form for the first time. So is explained by the introductory stanza No. 3:—“From innumerable musical strophes, Hāla, the friend of poets, has made the collection of seven hundred beautiful (literally provided with alaṃkāras or means adornment) stanzas”¹. Bāṇa too found in Hāla something more than a compiler, when in the introduction to his Harṣacarita (verse 14) he says—"Sātavāhana (i.e. Hāla) with his beautiful songs composed in 101 faultless metres has built up an imperishable charming store, as (a king, an inexhaustible treasure, not collected from villages) with diamonds (of unadulterated purity)². A tradition is that Bhāratī, the goddess of poetry, stayed for one and a half-day in the camp of Sātavāhana and generated taste in all people from the lowest down to the elephant-drivers and horse-grooms for Prākrit poetry and the king made his selection of 700 stanzas out of what they composed. Perhaps it will not be audacious to assume that this tradition just means that the king in fact made a collection of the songs from the mouth of the people and out of them made a selection of 700 stanzas and gave them a literary form³.