Kansvaho

Author(s): Rama Paniwada, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 27

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KAMSAVAHO
sūri (15th Century A.D.) had composed a Kamsavadhanāṭaka, but it is not now extant. His Prakrit poem Hamsasandeśa also is lost to us.29a Among the Sanskrit poems dealing with this event we have Kamsanidhana,30 a poem in seventeen cantos without labial, by Rama; and then there is Kamsavadha31 by Rajacuḍamani who flourished about the middle of the 17th century. Further there are two Kamsavadha-campus32 composed at the close of the last century: one by Keralavarman of Malbar and the other by Haridasa of East Bengal. Whatever may be the literary merits of these compositions, especially on the back-ground of classical works, one thing is certain that the slaying of Kamsa has been an engrossing subject for writers throughout several centuries. Thus Rama Panivada has his predecessors and successors in handling this theme in the realm of Sanskrit literature.
In the field of Sanskrit classical poems we have already Ravanavadha33 of Bhatti and Sisupalavadha of Magha; and, as shown below, Rāma Paṇivada shows an intimate acquaintance with the latter in composing his Kamsavaho. However in selecting this particular form of the title for his poem, it is more probable that Rama Panivada has in view the two earlier eminent poems, viz., Dahamuhavaho (or Ravanavaho, also called Setubandha) of Pravarasena and Gaüḍavaho of Vākpati..
iii) SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS.
The author, being devoted to his Teachers and pressed by his ardent devotion for Vişnu-Kṛṣṇa, narrates the story of
29a Proceedings and Transactions of the 10th All India O. C. Trivandrum, 1940, pp. 502 etc.
30 A Third Report of Mss. etc. by P. PETERSON, p. 355.
31 Classical Sanskrit Literature, p. 235.
32 Ibidem, pp. 258 & 666
33 It is usually styled Bhaṭṭikāv ya.