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CHITTAPA AND HIS SUBHASITAS
Smt. Nilanjaná Š: "Shah Introduction :
In sanskrit anthologies, many verses are ascribed to pocts who are otherwise unknown to us ag authors of any literary compositions. These anthologies sometimes agree as regards the ascciptions, sometimes they diffor.
Out of these several poets known only through the stray verses appoa. ring in anthologies, we have here attempted to collect all the verses attributed to Chittapa, (the court poet of Bhoja.) either unanimously or otherwise Bhilsa stone inscription't mentions the poet Chittapa as the author of one poem containing the eulogy of the Sun-god. From the study of these verses, we have endeavoured to trace hints for his probable place, time and to appreciate his genius. : i .
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The Subhăşitas culled here are taken from the Subhasitaratna-Kosa (Srk) of Vidyākara (11th century), Sadukti-Karnamsta (Skm) of Sridhara.. dåsa (1205 A. D.), Saktimuktāvali (Smv) of Jalhaņa (A. D. 1258), Sūktiratoakoşa (Sk) of Laksmana2 (13th century), śārågadharapaddhati (Sp) of Sarngadhara (4. D. 1363), Subhāṣitāvali (Sv) of Vallabbadeva (13th cen. tury), and Prasanna-sābitya-ratnākara (Psr) of Naodana3 (15th century).
Out of these anthologies, Srk is the earliest. It includes 12 of these verses. But it ascribes only one (749) verse to Chittapa specifically, while it assigns four verses (54, 61, 1059, -1457) to other poets, the rest being given without any ascriptions.
The largest number of these Subhāsitas are found in Skm, which cites as many as 46 out of 525. Among these, 40 ate ascribod to Chittapa, wbile only 4 (73, 396, 1476, 1636) are credited to other po'ts, the remaining two (3, 61) being anonymous.
In Smv., Jalhaņa cites -14 of these verses, 'eight of which he assigas to Chittapa, while he differs as regards the authorship of the three verses (90.1, 97.10; 97.37) and leaves the three (2-105; 72-4; 97–33) others, anonymous. In Sk Lakşmaņa cites three verses (110, 111, 112). and ascribes them all to Chittapa. These verses, appear exclusively in this anthology.
Sp includes five of these verses?. It attributes one verse (98) to Chittrama. It is one of the variants of the poet's name. Three verses (583,777, 1248) are assigned to other poets while verzę no, 4019 is left without any asori. ption,
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