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32
OAÚDALEHA
to compose Sattakas. That would explain, to a certain extent, why we have a small number of Sattakas of a late period. There are possibilities of discovering more by exploring mss. libraries. So far I have been able to list half a dozen Sattakas: 1) Karpūramañjarī of Rājasekhara; 2) Rambhā-mañjarī of Nayacandra; 3) Candralekhā of Rudradāsa; 4) Vilāsavatī of Mārkandeya; 5) Sțngāramañjarī of Viśveśvara; and 6) Ananda-sundarī of Ghanaśyāma”. The analysis etc. of Candralekhā have been already presented; so some important details about the rest of them may be given here. These details, I believe, would be useful not only for a comparative study of different Sattakas but also to a student of Indian literature, especially in Prākrit.
Rājas'ekhara and his Karpūra-mañjari Rajasekhara belonged to the Yāyāvara family. Akālajalada of great virtues was his grandfather, styled as mahārāstra-cūdāmaņi; his father was Darduka or Duhika, a great minister; and his mother was Silayatī. He had married Avanti-sundarī of the Cāhuāņa family. He reached eminence as a spiritual teacher or upādhyāya of Mahendrapāla or Nirbhara-rāja, through the stages of bāla-kavi and kavi-rāja: he was thus connected with the court of Kanauj at the time of both Mahendrapāla and his son Mahīpāla. The dates available for these kings from epigraphic sources range from 903 to 917 A. D.; so it is evident that Rājasekhara lived about A. D. 900. It is probable that he wrote some poems like the Haravilāsa. At present only five of his works have come down to us; four plays and the fifth, an incomplete encyclopedic treatise on different aspects of poetry :- 1) Bāla rāmāyana, 2) Bāla-bhārata, 3) Karpūra-mañjarī, 4) Viddha-śālabhañjikā, and 5) Kāvga-mīmāṁsā. The Karpūramañjarī is a Sattaka, entirely in Prākrit and in four Javanikāntaras; and it was brought on the stage at the desire of the author's wife, Avanti-sundari.
I. In this excellent Saţtaka, which is a stream of poetic flavours, king Caņdapāla, which name reminds one of Mahendrapāla, takes to wife the Kuntala princess, Karpūra-mañjarī, really a cousin of queen Vibhramalekhā, in order to achieve the rank of an emperor. After the Nāndī and the Prastāvanā in which the author is introduced and
1
Two more Satta kas, as noted below, are attributed to him; but without inspecting their mss. nothing can be definitely said about them. See the eds. of Karpüramañjari referred to above, pp. 5, 7.
2
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