Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

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Amrita
a verse in the work to be authentic we have to say that each verse in the collection bears the name of the poet, which, however, is not the case at present. Even then, we need not suppose that the names are pure fiction and invention of the commentators. Of the few we know something from other sources as well. Harivuddha and Pottisa are referred to by Rājasekhara in his Karpūranañjari in close association with Hāla while Bhoja quotes a verse in which Hāla is put as an ancient poet along with Haricandra. Pālia is better known as Padalipta while Aparājita is said to be the author of Mrgānkalekhākathā. Pravarasena is famous. Even though these poets are well known and must have written in Prākrit the allotment of the verses from the anthology to them remains doubtful.
It is difficult to evaluate the exact nature of the work of Hāla, the redactor of the collection. It is pointed out that all the verses bear a good deal of similarity with each other which would lead one to think that Hāla played not only the role of a redactor but also something of the nature of a composer and reviser who brought all the previous verses to a particular standard and a definite form!18. This, it is suggested, is the import of Bāna's statement and the meaning of the third verse. Hāla not only collected these verses but gave them a literary form. From this fact and from the evidence that only a small number of verses are common to all the recensions, Keith suggests that Sattasai was originally no more an anthology but a collection of verses largely his own and refashioned by him which in course of time by being extensively interpolated got its present shape of an anthology and suffered much in its individuality.
The Indian tradition dating as early as the time of Bāna and Dandin attributes it to Hāla who is identified with the king of the Andhrabhrtya dynasty which ruled over Deccan with their capital at Pratīsthāna from the third century B.C. to the middle of the third century A. D. Hāla comes in the middle and is said to be the 17th king and is assigned to the first century. This procedure, Keith calls as mechanical and without any foundation. From the Purānic tradition and the inscriptions at Nāśik we know that Sātavāhana was the name of the family and its greatest prince Gotamīputra Satakarni is assigned to 319-340 A. D. by Bhandarkar. According to these traditions the whole dynasty lasted for 456 years. The Mastya assigns Hāla to 297 years after the beginning of the dynasty. Lassen has put him about 276 A. D. Haraprasād Shastri 119 remarks that Hāla cannot be placed later than the first century A. D. and the mention of a Vikramaditya in the Sattasai should be syncronised with the founder of the Samvat era. There are a few facts which favour this conclusion. From Brhatkathā and other traditions preserved in Kāmasūtra and Kavyamīmāṁsa we know that