10 Vestiges of Three Royal Lines of Kanyahalja, Sfc. [No. 1 



contingent of the Sanskrit literature of the silver age. Yet, so far 

 as 1 can recollect, the sole extant* Sanskrit composition hitherto 

 shown, except by myself, to be associated with it, is the Vis'wa-pra- 

 Tcds'a, an homonymic lexicon, by Mahes'wara, written in the year 

 Ull of our era.f 



To the Vis' w a- ft alms' a we may certainly add the numerous pro- 

 ductions of S'riharsha, poet, philosopher, and chronicler. Out of 

 nine of his works whose titles have come down to us, only two are 

 known to have survived to the present day ; the Naishadlia-cliarita 

 and the Khandana-lclianda-lch&dya. All that we can be sure of, in 

 respect of the age of S'riharsha, is, that he was later than Kings 

 Chhanda and Sahasanka, and earlier than the Sarasioati-hantJid- 

 bharana, in which the Naishadha-charita is quoted. J 



* On the faith of the Raja-tarangini, a Bhavabhuti was patronized by Yas'o- 

 varman of Kanauj. Was he the well-known dramatist ? As there has been a 

 plurality of Kalidasas, why may there not have been a plurality of Bhavabhutis 

 likewise ? Vakpati is named along with Bhavabhuti ; and there were at least 

 two poets Vakpati. See the Asiatic Researches, Vol. XV., pp. 45, 86. 



t Having Kanauj in view, Professor Wilson alleges, that " A prince named 

 Sahasanka must have occupied the throne about the middle of the tenth century ; 

 as Mahes'wara, the author of the J'is'iva-prakds'a in the year 1111, makes him- 

 self sixth in descent from the physician of that monarch." Asiatic Researches, 

 Vol. XV., p. 463 : and see Sanskrit Dictionary, first edition, Preface, pp. 

 xxvii., xxix. 



This is a mistake. The account which Mahes'wara gives of his progenitors 

 is as follows. First was Harichandra, a medical writer, who annotated on 

 Charaka, and professionally served King Sahasanka. Descended from Hari- 

 chandra, but distant from him we know not how many generations, was Krishna, 

 physician to an unnamed king of Gadhipura, or Kanauj. Krishna had a son, 

 Damodara ; and Damodara had two sons, Krishna, and another whose name is 

 not specified. The latter had a son, Kes'ava. A son of the former was Brahma(?), 

 who was father of Mahes'wara. 



For the above I have consulted a very old manuscript ; and it differs from 

 those which have been examined in England. See Dr. Aufreeht's Calalogus 

 Cod. Manuscript. Sanscrit, &c, Pars. I., pp. 187, 188. 



Mahes'wara, besides being a lexicographer, wrote, he says, with other " great 

 compositions," the Sdhasdnka-cliarita. Sahasanka, of whom we have just read, 

 was, without much doubt, lord of Kanauj. S'riharsha, to whom we shall come 

 presently, wrote a Nava-sdhasdnka-charita. This name lends colour, at first 

 sight, to the view, that S'riharsha was posterior to Mahes'wara. The reverse was 

 the case, possibly ; and S'riharsha may have rivalled some earlier biographer of 

 Sahasanka; whence his choice of a title. 



Mahes'wara was contemporary with king Madanapala ; mnd Sahasanka, if of 

 Kanauj, was of the family from which the realm was usurped by Chandra. 



X For further particulars, see the Preface to the Vdsavadatid, pp. 17, 18, 

 foot-note. 



A caustic anecdote i3 told of S'riharsha. I have often heard it from the 

 mouths of the pandits ; and it has been related, in print, by Pandit ts'wara- 

 chandra Vidyasagara, in his Bangali pamphlet entitled Sanskrita-bhdshd o-Sans- 

 krita-kdhitya-s'dstra-vishayaka-prasidra. 



