________________
Siddhasena Divakara and Vikramaditya
patipatibhiḥ', contrasting their policy of barbaric destruction with his patron's wise practice of restitution and reconciliation (St. 14)! Nor would it be safe to say that Visnugopa of Kāñci hides himself behind the expression 'gopālavat' (St. 12), used with such broad irony that this defeated adversary of Samudragupta's cannot escape from being recalled by the reader195.
157
The same holds good for Maheśvara and Acyuta ( St. 27 ), names which forcibly must have reminded the contemporary reader of Rudradeva and Acyuta, those two kings of Aryavarta who, according to Harisena,' were eradicated by Samudragupta: Acyuta being mentioned by the former even twice, as it appears that he was defeated by the Emperor's own arm in personal combat !
196
It cannot, however, be denied that the Guṇavacanadvātrimśikā contains at least one clear and unambiguous reference to Samudragupta's history, viz., the words "lalaniyatvadājñā Mahendrādīnāṁ yadguṇaparitulanādurvinītā guņās te❞ ( St. 7). Obviously this passage would not be creditable to Siddhasena's poetic genius, were the word 'Mahendra' merely to be taken in its conventional sense of 'Indra-like ruler', as this meaning would be neutralized by the following 'adi' and thus become pointless and poetically insipid. It is therefore necessary to understand it as a proper name, in which function it can only refer to King Mahendra of Kośala, mentioned by Harisena as 'Kauśalakamahendra', the first in the group of kings of Dakṣinapatha recorded to have been defeated by Samudragupta' during his southern campaign. Only if taken in this sense, the passage reads like true poetry, deprecatingly summing up Mahendra and those other princes as an inferior crowd, whose qualities are so negligible that Samudragupta's Qualities, measuring themselves with them, get out of control with exultation at their own superiority! The conventional meaning of 'Mahendra' is not completely lost either, as now it puts a high-light of irony on the whole expression.
If it is admitted that all this evidence allows of the
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