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JUNE, 1907.)
NAVASAHASANKACHARITA OF PADMAGUPTA.
151
This is almost all we can extract from the Navasahaslikacharita respecting Pad magupta. It may be mentioned that, according to his own statement in the fourth concluding verse, he composed his poem at the command of king Sindhuraja, not from poetio pride ( djraira hefur ... na leavitvad ar pah). In the colophon to the whole work, the author is called a kritikari, a clever poet - a title which was held as specially honourable.?
As regards the title of the Kavya Navasáhasankacharita it must be remembered that there is another work of this name not yet discovered: Sriharsha is also known to have composed a Navasdhasánkacharita.'
It may be accepted without dispute that Padmagapta wrote other works besides the Navas dhasankacharita. There has even been expressed a conjecture as to the contents of a loat poem by Padmagupta. Kshmendra, in the Auchitydlankdra namely, quotes a number of verses under the name of Parimala, wbich, it may be remarked, do not appear in the Navas dhasankacharita. From these verses Peterson has concluded that " the theme of the (lost ) poem was that expedition into Gujarât despatched by Tailapa under a general of the name of Barapa," against Múlaraja, the founder of the Chanlukya dynasty of Anabilapattana, who for some time was hard pressed, though, according to the Gajarât chroniclers, the general was eventually defeated with slaughter. "The striking verse in the Kavyaprakasao: Rajan rajasutá na pathayati mdin (. 450, Calc. Ed. 1876) wears every appearance of being from the same work, for which we should be on the outlook" (The Auchityalam of Kshemendra, p. 26). Peterson's conjectare may be looked upon as a good one, in so far at least as there is nothing against it from a chronological point of view. Tailapa, king of Kalyans and Parimala, were contemporaries. One only wishes that Parimala's lost poem could be found.
• III. - Quotation from the Navashasankacharita. As the time of Padmagupta can be pretty exactly fixed, it will be of interest to find out, on the one hand, which poets he names in his Kâyya; on the other hand, by which authors verses from the Navas dhasdňkacharita are qnoted.
Unfortunately Padmagupta very seldom mentions earlier poets, and only those whom we know were earlier than the end of the tenth century. They are the following :- Kalidasa, 1, 5, 2, 92; Gunadhya, the author of the Brihatlatha. 7, 64, in a play on words (Gruta gunddhyasya brihatkatha tava); finally Bana and Mayara in a verse, which, in some degree, recalls the well-known verse of Rajasekhara – aho prabhavo v dgdevydh.10
sa chitravarşavichchhittihārinoravanterarah
Sri Harsha eva sainghatari chakre būņamayurayoh 11 The place has been described in detail by Zachariae in a sketch on Sanskrit vichchhittill in Bezzenberger's Supplements, XIII, 100.
1 Conf. Vikramdakadevacharita, 18, 101, and also Jacobi in the Literaturblatt für Orientalische Philologie, III., 06.
Cont. Naishadh acharita 22, 151 ; Vikramd Akadevacharita, ed. Bühler., Introd.. D. 2.
• In the Caloutta edition of 1866, p. 292, the verse ia quoted with variations also in the Sarasvattkanthabharana, ed. Borooah, p. 255, in which is added : atranayoktibhangya fanyiksitarinagarasya narapałek kaschit praldhan varnayati (p. 256 ). -Incidentally attention is directed to the verse Vaishthail Sarasvatik, p. 349, 17, upon which Aufrecht has already remarked in the Catalogue, p. 497 n.
1. Quoted for example in the Subhashitdvali, Introd., p. 86.
11 Horo a correction and addition is aoknowledged. The expression varpavichchhitti means with regard to the arrow of king Sindhurja "putting together of letters," arrangement of syllables. The arrows of the king were marked with his name - The rare Sanskrit word vichchhitti is also used in Narasdhankacharita, 17, 19.
Lånd saw dan subhatsipattrai sahasratal sonitasika[rd]rdrah uttalavaivasvatatalavrintavichchhittim ahul kurikarnalaiah 11
