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poetry (was) told in that way.
I only have one face (mouth), which is also broken...
(Mahāpurāṇa 69.1.6-9a)
It is common practice in this form of literature that the poet humbles himself before commencing his actual story. Puspadanta states that his work will never be comparable to that of the poets of old. He names Svayambhudeva and Caturmukha as great poets, which is a clear indication that he was familiar with their work. However, since his own Rama-story is modelled on Gunabhadra's version, it seems strange that Puspadanta does not mention his predecessor. The reason why he only mentions the works of Svayambhudeva and Caturmukha as exemplary poems of a Rama-story and not the prosaic version in Gunabhadra's Uttarapurāṇa or indeed any other version, may have different explanations:
(i) Maybe he only mentioned Svayambhudeva and Caturmukha,
because they used the same language, style and form as Puspadanta himself did and neglected to mention Gunabhadra, because his style is completely different but not necessarily inferior.
(ii) Maybe Puspadanta was well-acquainted with the Rama-stories both of Svayambhudeva and Caturmukha, and of Guṇabhadra, but considered Svayambhudeva's and Caturmukha's accounts as literary superior and therefore excluded Guṇabhadra's name. (iii) Maybe he was not acquainted with Gunabhadra's work, whereby he could have heard this particular version of the Rama-story from his teachers.
I believe that if Puspadanta considered only the style of Svayambhudeva and Caturmukha to be superior, he would not have repeated their names at the beginning of his Räma-story, after already mentioning them once at the beginning of his Mahāpurāṇa.11 Yet, because he mentions them for a second time at the beginning of his Rama-story, one can safely assume that he considered their Rāmastory itself to be especially superior. However, Puspadanta does not mention these poets again at the outset of his Harivamsa-story, although both Caturmukha and Svayambhudeva composed a poem
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