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258
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1904.
Fol. 148. The Kinge of Queda is Tributary to him of Syam, although y tribute he payeth be but inconsiderable in it Selfe, beinge noe more then annually a gold flowre, not Exceedinge 20 pieces of 8 in Value, yet he must Send or incurre his displeasure, y like all y Kings Vpon y Malay Coast must doe.
Fol. 153. This River of Queda is a Very good Riuer and soe is that of Old Queda y! lyeth to y Southward of this.
See Yule, 8. v. Quedda. [The quotations are good.]
(To be continued.)
NOTES ON INDIAN HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. BY J. F. FLEET, I.C.S. (RETD.), PH.D., C.I.E.
Kavisvara's Kavirajamarga.1
THERE is a Kanarese metrical work, entitled Kavirajamarga, or, by slightly free translation, "the Path of Poets Laureate," which deals with alamkara or the art of ornate poetical expression. It appears to have been first brought to notice in 1890,2 in Karnatakasabdánuidsanam, Introd. pp. 7, 23, by Mr. Rice, who wrongly attributed the composition of it to the Rashtrakuta king Nripatunga-Amôghavarsha I. It has been "edited" by Mr. K. B. Pathak, B.A., in the capacity of "Assistant to the Director of Archaeological Researches in Mysore," as a volume of the Bibliotheca Carnatica, entitled "Nripatunga's Kavirajamargga," published in 1898 at Bangalore under the "direction" of Mr. Rice. And, in the opening words of the editor's Introduction, which, it may be remarked, has been also issued, without its last four or five paragraphs, as an article in the Jour. Bo. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. XX. pp. 22 to 39, it is indicated as the oldest Kanarese work that has as yet been discovered. It may well be such; though it is not by any means the earliest specimen of the Kanarese language, as we have Kanarese records of the Western Chalukya kings, of the Rashtrakuta kings, and of the Western Ganga princes of Mysore, which are of earlier times. And it is also of interest in having a bearing upon the date of the Sanskrit writer Dandin, whose treatment of the same topic has been, partially at any rate, followed, whether by direct adaptation or by second-hand borrowing, in it. And it is, therefore, worth while to consider carefully what the period and circumstances of the composition of this work really were. The work is not dated. But it contains statements and allusions, by means of which the points in question can be determined.
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As may be gathered even from the title given by him to his volume, the editor of this so-called Npipatunga's Kavirajamarga has followed Mr. Rice in assigning the composition of it to the Rashtrakuta king Nripatunga-Amoghavarsha I. He has primarily based
1 It may be thought that this Note, which is practically a review of a book that was published in 1898, makes a rather late appearance. And so it does. But, for a long time after the book in question reached me, in 1899, I was unable to write about it, partly through being very much engaged in more important work, and partly because of the difficulty of obtaining in England some other Kasarese books which it was necessary to examine and quote. And now, for more than a year, the Note has late among my papers, finished except for the final reading that was of course necessary before sending it out, but a constant pressure of affairs has prevented me from giving it that final reading. I do not, however, regret the delay; because recent receipt of Mr. B. Narasimhachar's edition of the Kavyaralikana (see note 5 on page 197 above), one of the other works which I particularly wanted to see, has enabled me to make some very appropriate improvements, especially in connection with the fact that there were two Kanarese writers, and not simply one, named Nagavarma.-J. F. F.; November, 1903.
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l'he editor of the Katirijamarja has said, almost at the beginning of his Introduction, that the Kavirėjamorga" was first introduced to Oriental Scholars by Mr Rice in a paper contributed to the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society." And to this remark he has attached tie footnote "For July 1883," without specifying any page. I have had occasion to read, more than once, Mr. Rice's artiole on "Early Kannada Authors" in the Jour. R. As. Soc., N. S., Vol. XV., 1883, pp. 295 to 314. With nothing to guide me beyond the vague and slovenly reference given by the editor of the Kavirajamarga, I can only say hat, in that article by Mr. Rice, I cannot find any mention of the work in question, or detect anything that can be recognised as an allusion to it.
