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himself as a conqueror as well as a patron of learning. His capital L a k haņā vati is the city of La k şanā vati or Lak s maņā vati which is identified with the city of Gauda and not actually founded by, but more probably renamed after, this king Lakşma ņa se na.* No other information is available about this king-other than what is already noted in the chapter on Relation With Other Prabandha--Works. Likewise nothing is known regarding his descendents also. Therefore, the present prabandha must be regarded as informative in this regard.
His minister's name appears elsewhere as U m á patid har a. He also is a historical personage. He was a highly learned minister. Ja y adeva, the renowned author of the Gitagovindakāvya, who also was a courtpoet of this Lakşmaņa sena, mentions U mã patid hara as one of his fellow court-poets. The Saduktikarņāmpta quotes about go verses of Umā pati dhara. † Our prabandha adds one more plume in the cap of this learned minister viz. that he was a skilled astrologer. When he became sure that the queen would deliver a son who would fall in love with a girl of the Mälarga class at the age of 32 years, he stopped going to the royal court. On learning this the king sent the queen away to the countryside where she delivered the son, who, at the age of seven (or twelve ) years, took a vow not to marry at all. When the king expired, he was enthroned with great persistence, but minister U māpatiś ridhar a always kept a curtain between himself and the king as he did not wish to see the latter's face. The destined did occur at the age of 32 years. The minister's spy saw him in an awkward position. Being ashamed, the king prepared himself for kāşthabhaksana or self-emolution, and when he was going to embrace a red-hot iron-statue of the dimensions of a damsel in budding youth, the minister caught him and prevented him from undergoing the ordeal. Then the minister saw the king's face for the first time.
The name of this king, the son of Lakşmaņa sena, is given here as Ratnapuñja. The A version of PPS follows LPS, while elsewhere he is called Ratnasekhara.
The second part of the story commences with the statement that king Ratnapun ja thereafter went to Srimälapura. In PC and VTK versions he is the king of Ratna māla nagara, PPS B version pronounces the name of his capital as Ratnapura, while PPS A version
* Vide PANIJS, pp. 54, 61-63 ; AHI, p. 188; SGAMI, p. 110.
Vide V. 4. † Vide PHNI JS, P. 61.
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