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INTRODUCTION
81
nothing but unsatisfied desire, pleasure frankly expressed as prerogative of the rich, forming, like so much of the rest, literature of escape. Good fortune alone can relieve this kind of suffering if patronage of the insolent rich be not available. The renunciation is, therefore, a hankering to be realized in the vague future, with growing disgust. The popularity of these lines derives from the growth of a miserable class which was in this anomalous position of possessing knowledge of Sanskrit, but no certainty of eibployment.
One further proof of this contention may be seen in the remarkable fact that, in spite of the extraordinary variation from version to version, the total impression produced by any of them is about the same. A certain type of stanza came to be attracted to the collection. On the other hand, the seeds must necessarily have been present in the original collection to permit such growth. As noted earlien none of the heavy Vedanta survives, but the mangalācarana 1 seems to be quite genuine, along with 185, so that a Saiva tendency [ slight, because of 20 ] was present for later intensification. The latter of these two also shows the leaning towards renunciation in a safely distant future.
There is nothing to prove that the poet was other than what he seems to bave been, a hungry Brahmin in distress [152]. The most convincing figures of speech are Brahmanical, while control of the medium, ability to twist syntax and grammar at will, compression, and power show a mastery that can only be acquired by long practice in Sanskrit. No king who had renounced would have advised his soul to renounce if it could not taste the pleasares of royalty [183]. Nos. 163 and 166 could only have been written by one proud of being nothing but a poet, conscious of the immortality of his calling as expressed in 55. In expressing lack of trust in kings, 60° utilizes a completely Brahmanical metaphor; only a Brahmin would speak of begging, even after renunciation, by preference from the pious fire-sacrificing twice-born, as in 179.
For all that, we still do not know who he was. The life he led could not have been happy, though posterity has compensated him by posthumous glory as steadily inflated as his text.
करकृतमपराधं क्षन्तुमर्हन्तु सन्तः ।
11
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