Gaudavaho

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

Page 88

(Lxxi ) Vākpatirāja mentions the work of Subandhu in the same breath with Bhāsa and Kālidāsa, he is silent as regards Bāna, who wrote a prose work similar to Subandhu's. What then is the natural conclusion? It is that when Vākpatirāja wrote, Subandhu was a famous author, while Bāna was yet unknown to fame". Prof. A. B. Gajendragadkar, however, does not accept this view. He observes40 : .“We may guess at a probable reason why Subandhu's work delighted Vākpati ...... In the days of Vākpati, Subandhu was quite a modern author and in that age which was marked by a deterioration in men's ideas about poetry and poetical excellence, his work with its pun on every word', must have created some commotion. Vākpati read it and, being a child of his times, he found great delight in Subandhu's puns and mentioned his work in his Gaudavaho, while speaking of his education.” “The word ' Ānando ' in Gāthā 800 is quite significant. While the writers mentioned by him in this Gāthā were to him a great source of delight, the other writers, although his predecessors, did not much appeal to him and hence not mentioned by him. V. The Date of the Comyosition of the Gaudavaho :
According to Pandit, the Poem was composed years after the destruction of the Gauda king, mainly at the instance of his friends and admirers and not at the bidding of the King Yašovarman, nor because he felt inspired to write it. His reasons for this view are :
(i) In G. 797, Vākpatirāja speaks about himself as ' a poet, having the title of Kavirāja and one who was (ūsi ) an humble favourite of the King. The past tense 'was ’ is quite significant. 40. Gajendragadkar — Introduction to Harşacarita'
Footnote (e) P. XXIV