Kurmastakadvyam

Author(s): Bhojdev Maharaj
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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The first Śataka (here called A) is entitled “Avani-Kūrma Sataka", and its authorship is attributed to Mahārājādhirāja Bhojadeva. It is, however, very likely that the actual composition of the poems and of other works which appear as authored by him was the work of his court poets. The second Sataka (here called B) particularly in which King Bhoja himself is praised for ably supporting the earth, surpassing even the Kūrma in this task, could not have been penned by him.
Bhojadeva was a man of extraordinary learning and possessed wide interests. He is credited with the authorship of a large number of works, about 40, on a variety of subjects like poetics, literature, grammar, architecture, philosophy, medicine and astronomy. In inscriptions he is praised as kavirāja and vidyā nidhi.4 The two outstanding works on Alamkāra, the Sarasvatikanthābharana and the Srågāra Prakāśa, were composed under his inspiration. V. Raghavan says : "Bhoja's Srngāra Prakāśa, in thirty-six chapters, running to 1908 pages in foolscap size in manuscript, is one of the biggest works in Sanskrit Literature and the biggest in the whole field of Alamkāra Šāstra."5 Bhoja also has to his credit an encyclopedic Vāstuśāstra entitled Samarängana-sūtradhāra that presents canons of religious and civil architecture in 83 chapters. Bhojadeva wrote a philosophical work, the Tattva Prakāśa, (Illumination of the categories), a text of 76 verses, which systematizes monistic Saiva Siddhānta, and also another Saiva work called Siddhāntasangraha. He is also credited with an astronomical work, the Rajamrgārka, written in c. AD 1042.
Bhoja shifted his capital from Ujjain to Dhārā, where he established a school known as the Bhoja-śālā or Sarasvati-bhavana, on the walls of which he got inscribed several poems. The stone slab bearing the two Kūrma Satakas was one of these. The Jaina writer Merutunga in his Prabandhacintamani? (AD 1305) talks of 104 temples built by King Bhoja, but evidence for these is not yet available. However, it is known that Bhoja founded a town called Bhojpur (which is near Bhopal), built a huge temple there, and constructed a large tank by building dams on two rivers. The Kashmir historian Kalhana praises King Bhoja of Malwa for his liberality and says that he was a friend of poets (Rājatarangiņi, VII, 259). Merutunga says that the king gave every day an appropriate gift to learned authors. Interestingly, he also notes (p. 62) that Bhoja called representatives of all sects and asked them about the way to salvation. And they all agreed: "Religion is characterized by harmlessness, and one must honour the goddess Sarasvatī. By meditation one obtains salvation."