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CHAPTER XVIII
QUOTATIONS AND REFERENCES A remarkable feature of Somadeva's Yasastilaka is that it quates or refers to a large number of earlier authors and works, many of them otherwise unknown or but insufficiently known. These references have thus a great chronological value, forming as they do a definite landmark in Indian literary history. There are indeed few writers who have enriched Kāvya literature with so great a variety of well-stocked scholarship as the author of our romance.
PORTS In Book IV Somadeva refers to the following poets as Mahakavis, and claims that their kāvyas testify to the great reputation of the Jaina religion: Urva, Bhāravi, Bhavabhūti, Bhartrhari, Bhartrmentha, Kantha, Gaņādhya, Vyāsa, Bhāsa, Vosa, Kālidāsa, Bāņa, Mayūra, Nārāyaṇa, Kumāra, Māgha and Rājasekhara. These names are followed by a reference to what Somadeva calls 'the Kávyādhyāya composed by Bharata', probably the 17th chapter of Bharata's Nāțyaśāstra which deals with the adornments of poetry' (kāvyavibhūşaņāni), figures of speech and similar topics,
While some of the above names are well-known, we know praotically nothing about the others. Nārāyaṇa may be Bhattanārāyaṇa, the author of: Venisaṁhāra, but we cannot be sure about this. Kumāra is very probably Kumāradāsa, the author of Jānakiharana. The reference to Guņādhya seems to suggest that the lost Brhatkathā was extant in the Deccan in the 10th century. The reference to Bhāsa is not clear, and may not have anything to do with the dramatist of that name. In any case, Bhāsa is again mentioned as a Mabākavi in a subsequent chapter (Vol. II, p. 251), and the following verse quoted therein shows that he was a follower of the sensual aspect of the Saiva cult." gaita 7 ARTHPORETH H T HETlaar
पेया सुरा प्रियतमामुखमीक्षणीयं ग्रामः स्वभावललितोऽविकृतश्च वेषः।
येनेदमीशमदृश्यत मोक्षवर्म दीर्घायुरस्तु भगवान् स पिनाकपाणिः॥ "One should drink wine and gaze at a beloved woman's face and assume a garb that is beautiful by nature and unspoilt.Long live Siva, the Exalted One, who discovered such a way to salvation.” It may be noted that the verse occurs in the Pallava king Mahendravarman's Mattaviläsaprahasana where it is declaimed by a drunken Kāpālika, after salutation to Siva.
1 See Chap. VIII.
Ms. A remarks Parfer: 2 99.
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