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INTRODUCTION
21
3. Mention must be made of Sanskrit Mabākāvya named Dasagrīvavadha-mahākāvyam (DVM) attributed to Kavirāja-cakra-cakravarti Mārkaņdeya Miśra, two paper manuscripts of which are preserved in the Orissa State Museum. This work has been recently discovered and published by Orissa Sahitya Akademi, Bhubaneswar. The identification of this Mārkaụdeya Mis'ra with Mk, author of PS, as will be shown here, throws much light on the date and scholarship of Mk. Shri MAHAPATRA, Curator, Orissa State Museum and editor of the Des·criptive Catalogue of Sanskrit manuscripts of Orissa has rightly attempted to identify these two authors. I fully agree with him except on a few points which I shall now clarify.
The writer of DVM like Mk gives some information about himself at the end of his work. What is more remarkable here is that he gives a vivid description of his parentage and date of his work. It will be better to quote the verses for a clear understanding of the line of argument that will follow henceforth. The verses concerned are as follows:
भास्वद्वंशमणेर्बभूव कपिलक्षोणीपतेर्नन्दनो
वीरः श्रीपुरुषोत्तमो गजपतिर्भाग्यं भुवो मूर्तिमत् । आ कौमारदिनान्महाप्रियसुहृत्तस्याभवत्काश्यपः
श्रीमान्मङ्गलदेव इत्यभिमतो गोष्ठीषु विद्यावताम् ॥ २०.५७. श्रीरुद्रे पुरुषोत्तमेन्द्रतनये प्रोद्दामदोर्मण्डली
क्रीडाखण्डितशात्रवे वसमतीमासागरं शासति ।
3 See Daśngrivavadha-mahākāvyam (DVM) published by Orissa Sahitya Akademi in Rāstrabhāşā Samavāya Press, Cuttack-I in the year 1959.
4 Vide DCSM Vol. II. pp. CVIII ff. Also OHRJ Vol. III No. 1, pp. 35-39.
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