Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c10.s12.10

c10.s12.10

The notorious Kali loiters in the city of Niṣadha utterly frustrated but awaiting his chance to devastate Nala, while King Nala performs his rituals as per routine and chants a long hymn to Viṣṇu. In the last canto (XXII) Nala entertains his beloved after duly performing the evening ablutions and the poem ends with the graphic descriptions of darkness and then bright moonlight. That Śrīharṣa wanted to design his epic as a debate between atheism and theistic schools, and projecting poetry as an assertion of his faith in Vaiṣṇavism and an argument against non-Vedic sects and schools of philosophy is evident from his discourse.