DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42112#0013
PREFACE
IX
Visvagunadarsa 1 also may have conceived the plan of his work
under the influence of the Meghaduta. The Singhalese literature
embraces a long series of “ Sandesas ”, the earliest of which was
composed in the second half of the fourteenth century.2
The oldest known commentator of the Meghaduta isVallabha-
deva, who bore the surname Paramarthachilina and was the son
of Rajanaka Anandadeva.3 According to Aufrecht’s Catalogue
Catalog ovum (vol. 1, p. 555), lie wrote commentaries also on
two other poems of Kalidasa, viz. the llaghutamm and the
Kinnarasambhavti, on Milgha’s Sisupalavadha, on May lira’s
.Surgasataka, and on Ratnakara’s VakroktipahchCmka. The
last-mentioned commentary has appeared in the Kavgamald
(part 1, pp. 101-14). The editors, Pandit Durgaprasad and
l’arab, state in a footnote (p. 101 f.) that Vallabhadeva must
belong to the first half of the tenth century, because his
grandson Kayyata,4 son of Chandraditya, wrote a commentary
•on Anandavardhana’s Densataka5 in Kali 4078 expired and
in Loka [40]52 during the reign of Bhlmagupta.6 The Kali
and Laukika years correspond to a.d. 977-8, and Bhlmagupta,
grandson of queen Diddil, the Catharine II of Kasmlr, ruled
nominally from a.d. 975 to 980-1.7 Vallabhadeva’s father
Anandadeva seems to have held a high military appointment in
Kasmlr; for he is styled “ a sun on the firmament of the battle-
field ” and “the best of ministers”.8 From Vallabhadeva’s
commentary on Magha, of which I possess a Saradii MS.,
written in a.d. 1646 or 1647,9 we learn that he wrote also
1 See my Reports on Sanskrit MSS., No. 1, p. xi.
2 See Professor Geiger’s litteratur und Sprache der Singhalese)), p. 9.
3 See the colophon on p. 58 below.
4 Four verses of Kayyata are quoted in the Subhdshitdvali.
5 Printed in the Kdvyamdld, part 9, pp. 1-31.
6 Cf. Ind. Ant., vol. 20, p. 154.
7 Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, translated by Dr. Stein, vol. 1, p. 262 f.
8 See the colophon in the Kdvyamdld, part 1, p. 114, and Notices of Sanskrit
MSS., vol. 10, No. 4064.
9 The date is given thus :—Sri-Saptarshi-samvat 4722 Ashadha vati ashtamyam
Bhaume iyarii tika samaptim nlta : “this commentary was brought to a close on
IX
Visvagunadarsa 1 also may have conceived the plan of his work
under the influence of the Meghaduta. The Singhalese literature
embraces a long series of “ Sandesas ”, the earliest of which was
composed in the second half of the fourteenth century.2
The oldest known commentator of the Meghaduta isVallabha-
deva, who bore the surname Paramarthachilina and was the son
of Rajanaka Anandadeva.3 According to Aufrecht’s Catalogue
Catalog ovum (vol. 1, p. 555), lie wrote commentaries also on
two other poems of Kalidasa, viz. the llaghutamm and the
Kinnarasambhavti, on Milgha’s Sisupalavadha, on May lira’s
.Surgasataka, and on Ratnakara’s VakroktipahchCmka. The
last-mentioned commentary has appeared in the Kavgamald
(part 1, pp. 101-14). The editors, Pandit Durgaprasad and
l’arab, state in a footnote (p. 101 f.) that Vallabhadeva must
belong to the first half of the tenth century, because his
grandson Kayyata,4 son of Chandraditya, wrote a commentary
•on Anandavardhana’s Densataka5 in Kali 4078 expired and
in Loka [40]52 during the reign of Bhlmagupta.6 The Kali
and Laukika years correspond to a.d. 977-8, and Bhlmagupta,
grandson of queen Diddil, the Catharine II of Kasmlr, ruled
nominally from a.d. 975 to 980-1.7 Vallabhadeva’s father
Anandadeva seems to have held a high military appointment in
Kasmlr; for he is styled “ a sun on the firmament of the battle-
field ” and “the best of ministers”.8 From Vallabhadeva’s
commentary on Magha, of which I possess a Saradii MS.,
written in a.d. 1646 or 1647,9 we learn that he wrote also
1 See my Reports on Sanskrit MSS., No. 1, p. xi.
2 See Professor Geiger’s litteratur und Sprache der Singhalese)), p. 9.
3 See the colophon on p. 58 below.
4 Four verses of Kayyata are quoted in the Subhdshitdvali.
5 Printed in the Kdvyamdld, part 9, pp. 1-31.
6 Cf. Ind. Ant., vol. 20, p. 154.
7 Kalhana’s Rajatarangini, translated by Dr. Stein, vol. 1, p. 262 f.
8 See the colophon in the Kdvyamdld, part 1, p. 114, and Notices of Sanskrit
MSS., vol. 10, No. 4064.
9 The date is given thus :—Sri-Saptarshi-samvat 4722 Ashadha vati ashtamyam
Bhaume iyarii tika samaptim nlta : “this commentary was brought to a close on