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Professor G. Bühler's critical study
(Meru)? Adorn the earth; nobody demands you! May the illustrious minister Vastupala alone live for ever!"
It is bence certain that both poets stood in close relation to the minister who served Visaladeva's father, and their connection with him, according to the last verse, is scarcely doubtful. For when an Indian poet praises the generosity of his hero in the above manner, it is a certain sign that he has either experienced the same or hopes to do so. There are, however, a number of other passages which make it still clearer that Amarachandra and probably also Arisimha belonged to Vastupala's suite of poets which the Prabandhas often mention. The next verse, II.54, ought to suffice to convince the most incredulous. It says:-" Poverty has resignedly deserted so completely those men who continually rejoice in praising Vastupala that she, indolent in spite of the command of the gods, does not even cross the threshold of their neighbours' houses." That is to say, in simple prose, that the singer and other poets were well paid by Vastupala. If one must accept from this that Rajasekhara places the prime of Amarachandra and Arisimha too late, it need not therefore be concluded that they had no connection with Visabadeva. It is very possible that they kept themselves in favour at the Court of Dholkā after Viradhavala's death and the fall of Vastupala.
As the exact date of composition of the poem we need not be content to ascribe it merely in general to the period of Vikrama-Samvat 1276-1296 or 1297, during which Vastupala occuiped his high position. It will be seen later, from the comparison of his statements concerning Vastupala's buildings with the inscriptions, that it was probably written about the Vikrama year 1285. It is probably some years younger than the Kirtikaumudi. The Sukritasamkirtana seems never to have found much esteem even with the Jainas. Neither Rajasekhara in the Prabandhakosha, nor Jinaharsha in the Vastupalacharita, quotes it, although the latter gives long extracts from older sources. Both follow Someśvara's Kirtikaumudi, the greater fame of which put the poem of the less distinguished Arisimha in the shade. Its author Arisimha is perhaps mentioned in Sarngadhara's Paddhati, where a verse of a certain Arasi-Thakkura, No. 76 (Peterson's edition), is mentioned. Arasi stands for Arisi, and is a quite correct Prakrit form of Arisimha (see Ueber das Navasähasankacharita, p. 39), which is still frequently used in Gujarat. The identity of the two persons is, of course, by no means proved by the similarity of their names, but is only a possibility.
NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE CHAUDAS AND CHAULUKYAS. The first Sarga, which contains the genealogy of the Chapotkata or Chauḍā kings, gives the following names :
I. - Vanarāja
II. Yogaraja III. Ratnaditya IV. Vairisimha
V. Kshemarāja
VI.
Chaminda
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1. As a further proof of this, it may be mentioned that the Cambay MS. of the Padminanda -Kavya was written in the Vikrama year 1297.
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