Gaudavaho

Author(s): Vakpatiraj, Narhari Govind Suru, P L Vaidya, A N Upadhye, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 72

(Lv) whose patronage were the poets, 18 Vākpati, Bhavabhūti and others, became a dependent of Lalitāditya, employed in proclaiming his praises like a court bard.' Thus the land of Kanauj, from the banks of Yamunā to the banks of Kālikā, came under his sway, 'appearing as if it had been a yard attached to his house. ' 19
There is no reason to disbelieve the account about Lalitāditya, as recorded by Kalhana in his Rājatarangini. As Pandit observes20 he is a safe witness as to the main facts of his narratives, not only as a compiler or chronicler of accounts which he found in the old chronicles, but even as a critical and discriminating historian. We may, therefore, safely accept as true, without any doubt, the following facts: that Yašovarmā was a contemporary of the king Lalitāditya of Kashmir ; that Vākpati and Bhavabhūti were poets at his court; that Yasovarmā did not, when attacked by Lalitāditya in his expedition of conquest, come out successful, but had to become his vassal, if, indeed, he was not entirely deprived of his throne and that a treaty to this effect was made between the two.' .
As mentioned by Kalhana, it appears that Yasovarman was:a poet of no mean order. There are stray verses ascribed to him in the anthologies viz. the Sūktimuktavali, the Subhaşitāvali and the Sārngadharapaddhati. In his introduction to the edition of Subhasitāvali, Peterson makes a mention of a drama, called Rāmābhyudaya, written by Yasovarman, “which must have been a 18. ffaafaqfarisxia Fatleafaa: 1 जितो ययौ यशोवर्मा तद्गुणस्तुतिबन्दिताम् ॥
Taatferuit. IV. 134 19. Tatieruit - IV. 126-145. 20. Pandit - Gaüdavaho,' P. Lxxii.