Operation In Search of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Mumbai Circle 1

Author(s): P Piterson
Publisher: Royal Asiatic Society

Page 44

IN THE BOMBAY CIRCLE.
jecture that, as such compilations are more frequently the work of critics and admirers than of poets, it is not impossible that we have here a work by the Vallabhadeva, whose boast it was that he bad composed commentaries to the Sisupalaradha and “to more than one other poem."* The collection includes verses attributed to a Vallabbadeva, who may or may not be the same as the compiler.† The book is arranged on the same principle as the Sårngadharapaddhati : and in the great majority of cases the author's name is given. I I give the titles of the ninety-three sections under which the poems are grouped :Namaskârapaddhati 1.
Darjanavarnanam 6. âsîrvachas 2.
Kadaryāḥ 7. Vakroktayah 3.
Udârâh 8. Kavikavyapraśansâ 4.
(athânya padeśaḥ tatradan) Sujanavarnanam 5.
Suryenduvarnanam 9.
* See page 14.
+ The former is the more natural supposition, as Vallabhadeva would hardly have referred to another writer of the same name without adding a distinguishing mark either to the one or the other. So Sârngadhara includes some of his own verses in his paddhati. Besides Vallabhadeva there are quotations from a poet who is styled Utpreksha-Vallabhadeva, whom Aufrecht in his analysis of the sarngadhara-paddhati, to be referred to immediately, distinguishes from Vallabhadeva, also quoted in that book. Aufrecht gives the following account of the Bhiksh&tanakávya of Utpreksha-Vallabha :-"The subject of this poem is a favourite one. Siva goes to Svarga to seek alms, and the Apsaras try to make him fall in love with them. The poet uses this plot in order to describe in detail, with more or less success, each act and word of a woman in love, as these are laid down in the treatises in the Kama sastra. He states his purpose in the first verse of the second chapter :
भिक्षाटनेन पुरुहतपुरांगनानामाकस्मिकोत्सवविधायिनि चंद्रमौलौ तासामनंगशरजर्जरमानसानां
नानाविधानि चरितानि वयं वदामः॥ “I sing the various deeds of the women of Indra's city, when Siva came there to beg and caused them an onlooked joy, but wounded their hearts sore with love." The Apsaras owe their festival "out of season "to the moon on Siva's head. Aufrecht thinks Utpreksha-Vallabha's name was Sivadasa; and informs us that tho only poets he quotes are Kalidasa and Båna.
I Where the author's name is not known, the verse or verses are ascribed to kasyåpi, or kayorapi, or kesh&mapi, as the case may be : and Dakshiņâtyasya kasyâpi, “one of the poets of the south," is not an uncommon heading,