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expedition and on the insistence of the prince he was forced to eat meat. Being ashamed to return to his father after this, he started on a pilgrimage to make atonement for the sin. In the course of his wanderings he came across prince Darvinita of Ganga dynasty and attracted by his virtues began to live with him. He was then 20 years old. The verse is composed by him."
King Simbavienu was very mach pleased and sent several messages to Damodara inviting him to bis coort. In the end Damodara came and settled at Kañospara and the king treated bim equal to his son. He wrote several works like "Gandhamādana'# and attained great fame. In course of time he married and begot three
in the Katha also lends sapport only to this view. So the identification of Demodara with Bhåravi is incorrect. Therefore, the idea we get is that through Bbäravi, Danodara came to the court of Vişnuvardhana. They were thus contemporaries.
* Sri M. R. Kavi observes that Gandharaādana is a work of the prolific royal author Mahendravikramavarman, on the ground that the word xftat which is an appellation of the Pallava Kings occurs in the passage “स च तथा गृह्यमाणगन्धमादनप्रभृतिभिः श्रीवरकृतैः" in the text. He also cites the Mamandūr inscription which speaks of Mahendravikramavarman as an author of many works and the Sūktimuktavali of Rājasekhara which attributes a Gandhamādana to a Sáhasänka in the verse, "............ Arburg: aristofa: 1 ton aathi facu 174H1-TU." and seems to identify Sàhasanka with Mahendravikramavarman. Bat the reading in our Mai is " 791749107: 177higarrafa fareer
• Vide Avantisundari kathā sāra, Preface, p. 3.
