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Literature and Performing Arts
Lastly, we may note from Jain works a few references to Visakhila and Dattila who were reputed ancient authorities on music, dance and minor 'dramatic' types23. In the Kuvalayamālākatha, already referred to above, a king's royal assembly is dcscribed as attended, among others, by experts in Bharata's Natyaśāstra and as also in the tradition of Visakhila24. Elsewhere in the same work there is an episode of a royal parrot, who in the course of narrating his autobiography, says that he quickly learnt the theory of Natya and mastered Visakhila (i.e. the musicological work of Viśākhila)25. Similarly, in the introductory portion of his great Apabhramśa epic poem Mahapurāṇa, completed in 965 A.D, Puspadanta, foliowing the poetic convention of expressing humility, gives a list of subjects and works about which he says he was quite ignorant. The list includes the works of Dattila. and Visakhila26. These references, too, are notable as pre-Abhinavagupta references.
3. Song Used in the Musical Prabandhas
In many of the Classical works on musicology, the section on the musical Prabandhas define and describe a number of Prabandhas. The names of many of the Prabandhas are the same as the names of many well-known Prakrit and Apabhramśa metres. As. has been already pointed out, the same term was used to designate the song, dance, poem and metre in the complex of a performance. Accordingly, the description of metres bearing the same designation as borne by the Prabandhas, throws light on the several aspects of the latter. Works like Bṛhaddesi, Mānasollāsa, Samgitaratnākara, Samgitacūḍāmaṇi etc. treat Prabandhas like Arya or Gatha, Kanda, Catuspadi, Carcari, Jhambada, Tribhangi, Dvipathaka, Dvipadi, Dhavala, Mangala, Mātṛkā, Rāsaka, Vadana, Vastu, Satpadi and others, and we find these either treated as metres in the prosodical treatises of Svayambhu and Hemacandra or as types of poetical compositions current in Prakrit, Apabhramsa and early regional literatures. It may be significant in this connection to note that I derived the greatest help from metrical manuals for restoring the corrupt passages that are given
