Ksemendra Studies: Together with an English Translation of His Kavikanthabharana, Aucityavicaracarca and Suvrttatilaka

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KASHMIR, the ancient land of learning, produced in the eleventh century of the Christian era a writer of great eminence, the polymath Ksemendra. He is a writer of indomitable zeal and inexhaustible re- sources. His writings cover a very wide range of subjects. He is a versatile genius; his works include treatises on poetics and prosody. He wrote Kavyas and Mahakavyas, a drama, many didactic poems, poetical epitomes of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and of Guņadhya's Brhatkatha, a chronicle of Kings of Kashmir and a lexicon. Most of his works, numbering about thirty-two, have been published while some are yet in their manuscript form. In the whole range of Sanskrit literature few indeed have tried their hand on such a variety of subjects and with such success. Ksemendra's comprehensive style, his clarity of expression, his power to use satire to the best advantage and his critical insight into literature have earned for him a place among the masters of Indian literary tradition.

In the present work an attempt has been made to deal with several aspects of Ksemendra's life and works, his language and style, his contribution to Sanskrit literature, and his eminence as a critic of the theory and practice of poetry.

In his Kavikanthabharaņa (which may be rightly called Kavisikṣa) besides discussing possibilities of becoming a poet, of borrowing and adopting from masters of poetic art the poetic charm and its illustration in its ten aspects, merits and demerits with regard to sense, sound and sentiment, Ksemendra gives a hundred pieces of sound advice to the budding poet. Eminent writers on Sanskrit poetics like Dandin, Rudrața, Vamana, Vägbhața, Rajasekhara, Bhoja and Hemacandra have developed this subject in their treatises, but Ksemendra appears to be quite original in his treatment.

A study of Ksemendra's works reveals that they were written in accordance with the doctrine propounded in his Kavikanthabharaņa. For instance, his didactic poems, the Samayamatṛka, the Kalavilasa, the Darpadalana, the Sevyasevakopadesa, and the Carucaryasataka illustrate his lokacaraparijñana (Kavi II. 6) i.e., 'familiarity with the ways of the world', and upadesavisesokti i.e., 'special didactic skill'.