1916.] The Poem Kumara-Sambhavam. 11 



ings of its text, which must have been therefore much older than 



his time. 1 



In the final colophon Vallabhadeva calls himself son of 

 Anandadeva.* He wrote commentaries on several other poems, 

 such as Kalidasa's Rayhuvamsam and Megha-dutam, Magha's 

 Qisupala-vadharn , Surya-satakam , Vakr-okti-pancasika, etc. Val- 

 labhadeva's Panjika is quoted by Hemadri andMallinatha. He 

 must therefore be older than the thirteenth century at least. 

 He is probably to be identified with Vallabhadeva, the grand- 

 father of Kayata the Kasmirian who wrote a Tikd on Annanda- 

 varddhana's Devi-satakam during the reign of Bhimagupta in 

 4078 Kaliyuga era (977 a.d.). 3 Allowing an interval of half a 

 century for the two generations between Kayata and Vallabha- 

 deva, the time of the latter falls in the second quarter of the 

 tenth century. Judging from the commentaries therefore the 

 eighth canto was considered an integral part of the poem from 

 a time considerably older than the tenth century. 



As regards quotations from or references to the canto, 



one naturallv turns to those store- 



(t>) fo^afwo^. 1111 *' houses of quotations, the works on 



Alankara or rhetorics. One of the oldest 



Sanskrit rhetoricians is Anandavarddhanacarya. In his Vrtti or 



gloss on the Dhvany-aloka (the light on suggestiveness),* this 



author remarks that the famous descriptions of the amours of the 



highest deities by the great poets, though (essentially) improper, 



are saved from the fault of vulgarism by their genius ; for 



example, the description of the amorous enjoyment of the Devi 



ParvatI in the (poem; Kumara- sambhavam . The author adds 



that such amorous descriptions by a poet without genius would 



clearly be faulty. 



In commenting on this passage Acarya Abhinava Gupta 

 notes that descriptions of the amours of the highest deities are 

 as improper as descriptions of the amours of one's parents. 5 



1 For mention of different readings see, for example, under verse 

 32 of the eighth canto (No. 28 of the Xagri MS.), fW^if^**ft"iTf?C 



2 The Nagri MS. final colophon (fol. 566) : 



S The Kavya-mala , I, p. 101, footnote. 



+ The Dhvany-aloka, Udyota III, Karika 6 (Xir. S5g. Press, pp. 



137-8) :— ?rorf% mm i4? ) HTW^^t?^ni^^sTf^^HTi^jn-d^ai»rr^r\' 



^ffrr^TTwrref^nrtet i f«»r f^r *rf^rcf%3-*» ^ff^rr ipffaii f^w wjhk 



6 The Dht anv-aloka-locanam . p. 1 



