96
'harsh and vigorous as it ought to be and the intricacy of ^representing in a dramatic form a long account of the Great vWar must give him credit. It has never failed to command^ f
the high regard due to it of iis readers for more than ^ «*
.thousand years. 1
f
• . i
Rajasekhara was born of Durduka and Silavati and so |
a scion of a Yayavara family. He was wedded to Avarati- I
:sundari, * the crest Jewel of the Chouhan family '—obviously at Rajput princess. His ancestors seem to have belonged to ttier Vidarbha and Kuntala countries. Kshemendra quotes a stanza
• of our author and the countries that are named therein from Cambay to Comerin and justify Httle more than conjecture that Rajasekhara was .from West Dekhan. As find him in the position of a court poet at Kanouj far to
'tiorth, we must suppose that he left his native country to seek:
-wealth and fame at foreign courts. .
The poet in all his plays declares himself a spiritual -teacher of Mahendrapaia. Mahipala a son of the latter, was paramount sovereign of Aryavarta. Fleet has shown Mahipala must be identified with a King of the Ami inscrijp — •tion dated A. D. 917. An inscription, of Mahendrapaia from. Dubanli dates A, D. 761-2. All epigraphicat research goes to .assign him to about 900 A. D. Apte fixes the date to the end af the 8th century because the poet quotes Bhavabhuti aodi is himself quoted in Dasarupa.
Ofbi3 works, four have been discovered and it is certstin some are lost, as stray stanzas are ascribed ta him by SQiarmc* .anthologies, which have not be$n traced in the extant group* •of his writings.congratulation*