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by sober history, assigns to Bhoja and Kalidasa, the combined authorship of the work. This view is based on Bhallala's Bhojaprabanda, a very uncertain storyto rely upon. The style is very refined and the ideas are equally so. As a learned pandit once remarked, the language of Bhoja has a royal tinge in it, whereas that of other poets shows a touch of dependence. • • ...'... . ....... • j,
Next to Bhoja Harichandra deserves our consideration. The question of the identity of this author with the other, whom we have spoken of as the inaugurator of Sanskrit romance, has been discussed there. As to the exact age of his work, the Jivandharachampu, no information has reached us either from internal evidence or from external reference. The text itself.is still in the manuscript-form so that its very existence is obscure. With all this, it must occupy our atten- :
tion because of it£ language. An examination of the ideas m
and their expression must necessarily assign the work not to a ^ very late period of the history of the Champu Kavyas. From the introductory verses, the author appears to be a Jain. The book consists of eleven Lambhas and every one of these has its own beauties of composition. The music of wording is what is most notable. The forms of words are not highly learned and the text is easily understandable.
Venkatadhvari was the son of Raghunatha. He was born in the village of Arsanapale near Kanchi. He was a follower of the Ramanuja school of philosophy. He was well-versed in logic, philosophy and the commentaries. He was a contemporary of Nilakantha and must therefore have flourished in ike i^th century. He was the chief pandit at the court of Fralayakaveri. His Laxmisahasram is a poem of 1000 stanzas sin .praise of Laxmi, whods said to have been pleased with hisa of his court and the rest by himself. It is doubted if the work had really anything to do with the royal author. Perhaps his name was purchased. BhojVs poetry is even more appreciated than his prose ; for in the latter the vices described of later Sanskrit prose had already begun to make their mark. Yet the language is very harmonious and musical. His choice of words is especially noteworthy. Tradition, unsupported however