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court, or by whose command, the Balabharata was staged. The 'Prologue' of the Balabharata or Pracandapāṇḍava contains an eulogy of Mahipala.
RASTRAKUTA-PRATIHARA PERIOD
Rajasekhara, the teacher of king Mahendrapala of Kanauj, says in his Karparamañjarl that his accomplished wife Avantisundari was descended from the Cahuana family (i.e. from a Ksatriya family). This shows that intercaste marriages were in vogue in his times.
The people of Lâța are haters of Sanskrit, and so they employ the Prakrit for the sake of grace and beauty', says Rajasekhara in his Kavyamīmānsā, Adh. VII:
पठन्ति लट लाटा प्राकृतं संस्कृतद्विषः । ह्रिया ललितोपलब्ध-सौन्दर्यमुद्रा ॥
काव्यमीमांसा, अ. ७
The people of Lața country are described as fond of Prakrit language (Ch. X, p. 51):
गौडायाः संस्कृतस्थाः परिचितरुनयः प्राकृते लाटदेश्याः । सापभ्रंशप्रयोगाः सकलमरुभुवष्टक नादानकाश्च ॥
The poet Rajasekhara, author of the Kāvyamimānsā, the Bālarāmāyaṇa, the Viddhaśālabhanjikā, and the Karpüramanjri, flourished under Mahendrapala and his son Mahipala, who ruled over the country of Madhyadeśa, with its capital at Kanauj.-(IA., xvi, 175 ff.; 170-1).
From the 'Asni inscription' (V.S. 947 917-18 A.D.) and the 'Siyodini inscription' (EI, Vol. I, p. 171) it is known that Mahendrapala (890-908 A.D.) and his son Mahipala (910-940 A.D.) belonged to the Gurjara-Pratihāra dynasty. Rajasekhara belonged to the courts of both the father and the son; but the major part of his life was spent in the court of Mahendrapala, who is said to have been his disciple in all his plays. Mahipala seems to have maintained the poet only in the earlier part of his reign, since Balabharata, the only drama to be performed in his presence remains incomplete, and appears to be the poet's last composition.-(K. S. Ramaswami: Introduction, 3rd Edn. 1950, Kavyamimänsä, p. xii-iii).
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काव्यमीमांसा, अ. १०
=
A Kesara flower falling from the stem, is compared by Rajasekhara with the naval of a Laţa lady while describing the full-blossom spring:
लाटीनाभिनिभं चकास्ति च पतद् वृन्ताग्रतः केसरम् । - अ. १८
At another place, while describing the splendour of the cold months of the year, the stray lock of a Lața lady is described as dancing by the gale of wind :
(.........
.........मरुत् ।
ललाटे लादीनां लुठितमल ताण्डवयति ॥ अ १८ )
Both these references suggest the exquisite beauty of the Laţa ladies.
Rajasekhara, the author of the Kavyamimānsā, mentions among products of Western India (Paścaddeśa) varieties of bamboos, palm-trees, and date-trees.
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