119
verses, fit to be an instructive primer to a beginner in worldly life. There is not much of poetic beauty but some of the | stanzas are noted for their lyrical harmony. .
Muka was according to tradition a contemporary of Sankara. He was a native of Kanchi. He was at least in his earlier years an idiot, till by sudden inspiration, regarded as almost miraculous, he blazed forth into a great poet. The story goes that at the founding of the Kamapitha, the dumb lad soon after a .hypnotic bath got the use of .his tongue and straightway the divine affatus came upon him and he poured forth his heart in profuse strains of unpremeditated art. His poem in praise of Devi is known, as Panchasati* Itcopsists of five centuries-^^rytf, padaravinda, stuti, kataksha apd man-dasmita satakas. On the authority of the tradition, t;he work Y must be assigned to the 8th century. That he is a great poet goes without-saying. His..command over vocabulary and idiorxx is truly wonderful. His charm of expressior* is for the ear not for pur feeble pen. In stylevMuka's strongly compares with Sanka-ra's lyrical panegyrics. His Kataksha-satakam and Kamakshi-stuti-satakam form a store-house of fanciful poetic composition.
: BhalJata was a Kashtnirian by birth. His Sataka called after him resembles the Niti Sataka of Bhartriharj. Inanimate; objects are addressed and the collection is intended to give instruction iia moral's. He is quoted by Ksbemendra .and Abhinava Gupta and must therefore be assigned to about the eigth century A. D* His verses are strained and unmusical. But the thoughts arid imaginations are instructive.
Sankara, the great Advaitic reformer, flourished Saka 742, i.e. 820 A, D; His work was purely in philosophy. Of collection of sensible-icks of style exhibited in tb£ latest Kavyas. Rhyme even is introduced, and that, too, not only at the end of, but within metrical lines. Theart an4 im^naacts, describing the* f