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असगु महाकइ जें सुमनोहरु वीरजिणंदचरिउ किउ सुंदरु । केत्तिय कमि सुकइगुण आयर गेय कव्व जहि विरइय सुंदर ।।
To render it freely, Asaga is a great poet who has composed his beautiful and attractive Virajinendracarita in which beautiful verses have been woven, the merits. of which are beyond expression. These compliments are on par with what Asaga. himself has said about his VC. Dhavala has not given his date, but he is tentatively assigned to the tenth or eleventh century A.D.
Ponna1, one of the three great poets of Kannada, refers to Asaga, and claims his superiority(perhaps a bit exaggerated) both over Asaga in Kannada (by hundred times) and over Kalidasa in Sanskrit (by four times), in his Santipurana ( I. 11)
कन्नडकवितेयोळसगंग नमंडिरेखेगग्गळं सक्कददोलू ।
मुन्नुळ्ळ कालिदासंगं नाल्वडि रचनेयोळ कुरुळूगळ सवणं ॥
Ponna's specification indicates that he knew Asaga as a Kannada poet just in the manner that he speaks of Kalidasa as a Sanskrit poet of the past. Ponna is very much indebted to Kalidasa: that is a good evidence for his proficiency in earlier Sanskrit literature. He refers to Asaga, as noted above4 in his Santipuräna, and we have today, before us, the Santipuräna of Asaga in Sanskrit. He is naturally indebted to Asaga's work. The late A.P. Chaugule has shown how Ponna is indebted in descriptions, ideas and expressions to Asaga's work. It is not unlikely that someof the ideas are a common inheritance from earlier Sanskrit works. There is some controversy about Ponna's date, because he has not mentioned any himself. Different dates are assigned to the Santipurana of Ponna by scholars, namely, c. 5933, 550 or c. 973. This reference to Asaga by Ponna establishes two facts that Asaga wrote in Kannada too and that he was earlier than Ponna, the latest date for whom is c. 973 A.D.
Durgasimha, whose date is now ascertained to be 1031 A. D., mentions Asaga in his Kannada Pamcatantras along with other poets Manasija and Candrabhaṭṭa पोसतेनिसि देसेयि नवरसमे सेयल्कोवेत्त मार्गदिनिळेगे ।
नेसेदुवौ सुकविगळेने नेगदसगन मनसिजन चंद्रभट्टन कृतिगछ । ॥
1. Pampa has not mentianed Asaga, as noted by the Editor.
2. D. L. Narasimhachar Fithikegalu Lekhanagalu, Mysore 1972, pp. 295ff.
3. Venkat Rau & H. Sesha Ayyangar, with an Intro. in English by R. Tata. Madras 1929.
4. There is another context where Ponna refers to Asaga by ślesa (XII. 23 ) and possibly to some five works of the latter.
5. A. P. Chaugule: Ponnana mele Asagana Prabhava, Jinavijaya in Kannada, XXX.I. Belgaum, 1952 January, pp. 4ff.
6. Ed. S.G. Narasimhachar & M. A. Ramunjayyangar, Mysore 1898, See Kavicarite, Vol I Bangalore 1961, p. 35, App. 2
