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INTRODUCTION
question; but as it violates the metre, he cites the Prakṛta Paingala to show that an ekāra may sometimes be treated as short.
It is well-known that the Prakṛta Paingala mentions Hammīra in some of the illustrative verses. Composed in late Apabhramsa to celebrate the military exploits of Hammira, these verses seem to have been current after the fall of Ranthambhor in 1301 A.D.'; and the Prakṛta Paingala could not possibly have been written earlier than about the middle of the fourteenth century. In that case, Sahasanka, who quotes it, and is quoted in SC, may be placed in the fifteenth or sixteenth century.
Harṣapāla
A few quotations from the commentary of Harṣapala occur in SC, but there is hardly any clue to his date, except that he is earlier than the second quarter of the seventeenth century. If, however, Harṣapala is identical with the commentator Śriharṣa quoted by Kulanatha (see above), he must be earlier than the sixteenth century.
IX
The commentaries and the recensions of the Setubandha.
The commentaries throw considerable light on the recensions of the Setubandha followed by them. So far we can speak of three different recensions of the poem, South Indian, North Indian and Bengal. A Western recension appears to have existed; but our knowledge of it is at present derived from sources other than commentaries. The South Indian recension
1 Sharma, Early Chauhan Dynasties, p. 114ff, Delhi, 1959.
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