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( 114 ) follows in the original pråksit, and in Gangadharabhatta's Sanskrit gloss* :
सत्तसआई कइय[व]छलेण कीडीअमझ्झारम्मि ।।
हालेण वीरइआई सालंकाराण गाहाणं ॥ ३ ॥
प्रेक्षावत्प्रवृत्तये स्वग्रंथस्य संक्षिमसांसाररूपतां चाह ।। सत्तेति । सप्तशतानि कविवत्सलेन कोटेमध्ये । हालेन विरचितानि सालंकाराणां गाथानां। मझ्झारो मध्यः। कविगाथासंग्रहेण तत्कीर्तिस्थापनात् । कविवत्सलेन हालेन शालिवाहनेन सालंकाराणां गाथानां कोटेमध्ये सप्तशतानि विराचतानि संगृहीतानीत्यर्थः । गाथालक्षणं तु॥ पढमं बारहमत्ता बीए अहा[दा] रएहि संजुत्ता। जहपढमं तह तीअं दहपंच अवि हसिआ गाहा इति पिंगलोक्तं बोध्यम्
It appears to me to be at least doubtful whether this verse has been correctly understood to mean that Hâla in the works of which he is speaking has a collected"+ seven hundred poems by different authors. I venture to suggest that facial has its ordinary acceptation here ; and that that the verse really means that of the thousands of gâthâs which (y. 2) are the admiration of men of discrimination, Hüla is the author of no less than seven hundred, namely, these which are given in the book that follows. If I am right, we have an easy explanation of the fact that the commentator's list of authors breaks off with the 15th verse, and of the perhaps even more significant fact that the names he gives are unknown, and wear the appearance of unreality which Weber so justly notes.
The contents of the Saptasatakam, it must be added, do not in any way militate against such an hypothesis. The verses are all in the same metre, a circumstance in which Weber sees an indication of the antiquity of the collection : but which may as naturally, it is obvious, be referred to the predeliction for a particular kind of verse entertained by an individual author. Weber has noticed places where the verses, which as a rule have no very close relation to each other, are brought more nearly together,
* I quote from the MS. in the Bombay Government collection deposited in the Elphinstone College, which Weber also used.
+ Weber has apparently felt the difficulty of giving this meaning to reA , a word which everywhere else is consistently used, in this connection, in the sense of composed.' At p. 4 of the Essay he translates the word by zusammengestellt (collected): at p. 73 by zurecht gestellt (arranged). It is not unimportant that ar e is applied to the verses themselves (GRETCUF) and not to some such collective title as कोष:.
t The Threr in the midst of which are Hala's seven hundred verses may have been a collection made by his order.
& Compare Kshemendra's remarks as given in foregoing Report, p. 11.
