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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA of the poet. It would have been a poor panegyric that made Arjunavarman move among fictitious characters. Hence I believe that, as stated in the drama, his chief queen was actually named Sarvakalâ[1] and was the daughter of the king of Kuntala (v. 11),─ who is perhaps identical with the then reigning Hoysaḷa king Vîra-Ballâḷa II.,[2]─ and that Pârijâtamañjarî[3] or Vijayaśrî[4] happened to be Arjunavarman’s favourite at the time when the drama was composed. Her miraculous appearance and her fanciful connection with the vanquished king of Gujarât may have been suggested to the poet by her real name. They could not fail to please the king and his mistress, and could perhaps be risked all the more easily because the lady was not to royal blood, but owed her elevation only to her personal charms. Another instance in which the wedding of the favourite queen of a reigning sovereign forms the subject of a romantic story is that of Chandaladêvî in the Vikramâṅkadêvacharitam.[5] In this case, contemporary inscriptions and Kalhaṇa’s Râjataraṅgiṇî prove that the heroine’s name was not invented by the poet Bilhaṇa, but that she was actually one of the wives of Vikramâditya VI.[6] Vidyânâtha’s Pratâparudrîyam deserves to be mentioned in the same connection, as it includes a drama that resembles the Pârijâtamañjarî in being the panegyric of a reigning king.[7]
TEXT.[8]
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[1] Vv. 11, 37, 55, 62 and l. 78 ; Samastakalâ in v, 30.
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