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Pothikhna of Jaipur: Khas-Muhai
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these contemporary poems, the feast-episode, which is said to have taken place at the time of Kunwar Man Singh's visit to Udaipur, is not traceable while many other historical events are described therein.
In Mänvarśavarnana by an unknown author, there is an evidence to the acquisition of Shilāmāi (idol of goddess Durgā) from Bangladesha and the construction of her temple near the palace by Raja Man Singh. Also there is a reference to the five coloured flag and the location of the palace and the temple on the bank of the Mahāvață lake.
Gopal Bhatt, son of Damodar Tailang, renders a vivid and true account of the court of Mirza Raja Jai Singh in his work Jayachampū. He asserts that it is not based on hearsay like that described by other poets about kings of the past. This manuscript is dated 1718 V.S. (1661 A.D.) and bears a seal of Mirza Raja's time. The famous Hindi poet Behari and Kulapati Mishra flourished in this court and the latter continued till the time of Vishnu Singh (Jai Singh's great grandson) for whose pleasure he wrote Durgäbhakti Chandrika. Perhaps it was Mirza Raja Jai Singh at whose instance the drama Abhijñāna Sakuntala of Kālidās and Ratnāvali of Shri Harsha were first translated into Hindi. The latter translation was by Padmapāņi while the name of former translator is not known. Manohar, the scribe says :
राजाधिराजस्य नियोगयोगाद्रत्नावली श्रीजयसिंह सूनोः ।
श्रीपद्मपाणेर्वचनप्रपञ्चैर्नृभाषस्याऽलेखि मनोहरेण।। Mirza Raja's taste in other branches of learning is evidenced from other manuscripts collected by him e.g., copies of the four vedic Samhitās, all standard Sanskrit Kävyas, Vaisnava-küịchandrikā, Parasi Prakash- a grammer of Persian rendered into Sanskrit and containing Sanskrit equivalents of Persian words and Chhanda-gopālam. a rare prosodical work by Kashinath. Two of the rānis of Mirza Raja Jai Singh were interested in having good books in their collections. Several manuscripts are marked to have been written for Maharani Chandrawatiji and consequently received from her Sarkar in the Pothikhānä (M.S. 1847). 'The Chhanda gopalam manuscript has got a few decorative figures, of Krisna with cows etc, representing the early art of painting at Amber. Similarly, Rani Anand Kunwari of the Chauhan family (daughter of Shyamdas of Karauli), is praised as particularly interested in acquiring knowledge, giving alms and devoting herself to the meditation of Hari.
Mirza Raja's son and successor Ram Singh can be regarded as the original builder of the Pothikhāna. We come across his seal dated 1718 V.S. (1661 A.D.),bearing the letters ARY (of Rāma) and an effigy of a lion, put on more than 1000 select manuscripts though an earlier seal of his father's time dated 1069 A.H. and an accession note dated 1075 A.H. is also visible on a lesser number of books.
Ram Singh himself composed Rūpamañjari, Dhātumañjari (both in Sanskrit) and Chhavitaranga (Hindi) and the authorship of Rājopayoginīpaddhati and a drama Jānakīrāghavam is also ascribed to him.
Harijivan Mishra was one of his teachers. This is evidenced by a note, written on a fragmentary copy of Pingal-Hamir, saying that fourteen leaves were issued to Harijivan Mishra for teaching. The manuscript bears the seal of Ram Singh.
In a drama Sringära väpikä it is indicated in the Sūtradhar's speech that the author. Vishwanath Bhatt kindly taught and dedicated his work to Ram Singh.
Most of the manuscripts copied for Ram Singh are by Ramkrishna and Ramnath Pandits, whom he took with him to Assam and Afganistan during his postings there. Frequent mention of Rāngāmāti and Jamrud are found in the colophon remarks. Ramnāth continued till the time of Vishnu Singh.
