Indian Antiquary Vol 34

SR No.: 032526
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 548
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 189

August, 1905.)
NOTES ON THE POET RAJASEKHARA.
179
It may have been from the desire of acquiring such accomplishments that Mahendrapala engaged Rajasekhara as his teacher. The correctness of this view is established by verse 9 of the Karpúramanjari, according to which Rajasekhara was successively' appointed to the offices of junior poet, chief poet, and preceptor (upddhydya). The gradation is significant and almost excludes the possibility of taking upddhydya in the sense of 'a spiritual guide.' Thus there is no reason for doubting that Rajaáêkhara was a member of the military caste. His matrimonial alliance with the Chahuâņa family may have contributed to his success at the court of Mahendra pâls of Kanauj. His father had already been in the service of the state; for Rajasekhara calls himself the son of a great minister (mahamantrin).'10
Though Rajasekhara had a drama performed at the court of the Chedi king, he did not thereby sever his connection with the rulers of Kananj. For, as stated before, his last, unfinished work, the Balabharata, was to be represented before Mahipaladers, the son and successor of his former papil Mahồndrapala. In the prologue of the Balabhdrata, he applies to his new patron the complimentary epithet Maharajadhiraja of the oountry of the Aryas (Āryåvarta).' It will, thus, not be out of place to add here a note on this geographical term.
According to the Baudhayana-Dharmaádstra, Aryavarta" lies to the east of the region where (the river Sarasvati) disappears, to the west of the Black Forest, to the north of the Pariyatra (mountain), to the south of the Himalaya." In the published texts of Baudhayanis (I. 1, 2, 9), Vasishtha (L. 8) and the Mahdbhashya (II. 4, 10) the words to the west of the Black Forest' are represented by pratyak Kalakavandt or Kalakad-vandt. The majority of the MSS. which I used for my edition of Baudhayana, read Kalak dvandt. Bat I have since obtained two Grantha MSS. which bave Kanakhaldi and Kanakhkhaldt. While a tract named *the Black Forest' is only known in Germany, but not in India, Kanakhala is the recognised Dame of a mountain and place of pilgrimage near Haridvar, where the Gangå descends into the plain of Hindustan. To the references given by Wilson in his valuable edition of the Méghadúta, 20 the St. Petersbarg Dictionary adds several verses of the Mahabharata, and Kathdaaritsagara; III., 4 f., where we are told :- "There is at Gangadvara (i.c. Haridvar) a holy tirtha called Kanakhala, where Kanchanapata, the elephant of the gods, made the JAhnavi (Ganga) descend from the top of Unaragiri, having cleft that (mountain)."
The distance between Haridvůr and the Sarasvati as eastern and western boundaries is rather short; but we may be expected to treat as the continuation of the eastern boundary the south-easterly course of the holy river Gangâ past Kanauj and as far as Allahabad, near which the hills forming the southern boundary would commence. In this way the sútra of Baadhảyana would agree with Manu's definition (II. 21) of the Middle Country' (Madhyadéśa), where the corresponding words are pratyag-eva Prayagachacha, "and to the west of Prayaga (Allahabad).' Thus pratyak Kanakhaldt may be considered the original reading, and Kaladvandt, &c., to be clerical mistakes for it.
In Buddhist works21 the eastern bonndary of the Middle Country is placed much further east at a town called Kajangala, and the northern boundary at the mountain called Usfraddhaja' or Usiragiri.' Kajangala is of course quite distinct from Kanakhala; but Usiragiri looks like a corruption of Usinaragiri, which the Kathdsaritadgara mentions in connection with Kanakhala. Usinara occurs already in the Aitarya-Brdhmana (VIII. 14) and in the Satras of Paşini (II. 4, 20, and IV.2, 118) as the name of a country; it was probably converted into Usira because it reminded the Buddhist monks of the familiar witra, 'khaskas.'
18 Harvard edition of the Karperamafjarl, p. 182
Compare Bühler's translation, p. 147. 26 Caloutta, 1819, p. 59.
21 See Prof. Rhys Davids' paper in Journ. R. As. Boo. 1904, p. 88. Compare Sywki, translated by Beal, Vol. II. p. 193.