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The Indian Analyst
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North Indian Inscriptions |
LITERARY HISTORY ........................pibati madhu-sugandhīny=ānanāni priyāṇāṁ Vikramāditya, we are told, having heard pibati with tvayi, meaning that he was represented as sucking honey out of the lips of damsels,heckled Kālidāsa, who, with slight verbal alterations, that is, with the change of pibati into pibatu and tvayi into mayi, transformed the whole drift of the passage. This is considered to be such a clever instance of a figure of speech called Paṭhiti, that the verse is quoted not only by Bhōjadēva in his other work Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇa but also by Rājaśēkhara in his Kāvyamīmāṁsā. But the main point about this stanza that we have to notice is that it was uttered by Kālidāsa on his return from the court of the Kuntala prince where he had been sent on embassay by Vikramāditya. That this embassy is not a mere legend but a historical incident may be seen from the fact that Kshēmēndra actually cites a verse in his Auchityavichāracharchā from a work called Kuntēśvaradautya which he ascribes to Kālidāsa. Kuntēśvaradautya seems to be a mistake for Kuntalēśvaradautya. The question now arises: who was this ruler of Kuntala? Here poet Kṛishṇa, author of Bharatacharita, comes to our help. His work, like the Harshacharita of Bāṇa, begins with verses in praise of the well known poets. Immediately after the mention of Kālidāsa occurs the following verse: ........................Jalāśrayasy=āntara-gāḍha-mārgam=
The verse contains an undoubted reference to Sētubandha by a ruler of Kuntala. According to Bāṇa, however, its author was Pravarasēna. In the actually published text of it, the work calls itself Rāvaṇavaho in the concluding verse. But all the colophons of its cantos speaks of it as Dasamuhavaha and attribute its authorship to Pravarasēna. Putting these scraps of information together, what we gather is that there was a king named Pravarasēna, a ruler of Kuntala, who composed a work called Daśamukhavadha or Rāvaṇavadha and also known by the name of Sētubandha. Further information on this point, which, however, is of a merely traditional character, is supplied by Rāmadāsa, the author of the commentary on the Sētubandha entitled Rāmasētupradīpa. He gives us two bits of tradition in two places in his commentary. One is comprised in his gloss on Book I, verse 9, from the initial line of which it appears that the work was begun by Pravarasēna soon after his coronation. In his comment on this line Rāmadāsa says: ........................abhinavēna rājñā Pravarasēnēn=ārabdhā | Similarly, one of the introductory verses to his commentary has: ........................dhīrāṇāṁ kāvya-charchā-chaturima-vidhayē Vikramāditya-vāchā | Putting together both these statements, we learn that, according to the tradition prevalent in the time of the commentator, Pravarasēna commenced his work soon after he was installed on the throne, that he was materially helped by Kālidāsa in the work of the composition, and
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