367 
1898.] M. M. Chakra varti —Language and literature of Orissa. 
40. Saggitakaumudi 
41. Gitabhidhana (^t^TTfvr'ifT^r). 
42. Sarartu (W*3) • 
It will be seen that 20 out of 42 or nearly half are romances. To 
Upendra Bhanja belongs the credit of having been the first to shake off 
largely the predominating religious tendency. This comparative free¬ 
dom seems to have arisen partly from his birth in a royal family and 
partly from his vicissitudes in life, now a prince and now an exile. 
His stories are no doubt confined to princes or high ministers, and thus 
belong to the primitive stage of story-telling. Yet they are preferable 
to the dreary repetitions of mythological absurdities. 
As a master of rhetorical excellences he stands higher than all 
Oriya poets except Abhimanyu. He knew intimately the Sanskrit 
rules of elegance, and was a successful follower of the standard set up 
in the later Sanskrit classics. He was an adept in all kinds of Oriya 
verses, writing freely and fully. He was a master-hand in vocabulary 
and letter-selection. Sometimes he wrote poems without any admixture 
of vowels other than o, e.g ., Abana Rasataragga ; sometimes he limited 
the initial letters of each line to one letter only, such as ba in Baidehisa- 
bilasa, ka in Kalakautuka, sa in Subhadraparinaya. Sometimes he 
used Jamakas throughout a poem, as Premasudhanidhi; while Koti- 
brahmandasundarl sparkles with numerous varieties of rhetorical 
gems. In spite of innumerable lines of unequal merits due to his 
prolificness and constant attempt to play on words, a large number of 
passages contain verbal excellences fit to stand the fierce light of 
modern criticism. By intermixing numberless unfamiliar Sanskrit 
words and allusions, the text has however been generally made 
unintelligible to the ordinary readers, and to most of his poems 
explanatory tlkas are absolutely necessary. Hence in spite of his 
rhetorical skill, his poems rarely move the heart, or add to one’s 
knowledge about nature or the human mind. 
On the question of sentiments he does not rise above his age. 
Wanting in energy and lifelikeness the heroes and heroines move like 
puppets. The low view of women common to the age and to the models 
followed still further degenerates in his poems; and obscene descriptions 
abound. Ethical doctrines are generally at a discount in royal families, 
and in Upendra Bhanja’s case the grandfather’s sensuality appears to 
have had a still worse effect. 
To summarise, Upendra Bhanja is in Oriya language, the most 
voluminous author, the earliest and most prominent fictional poet, the 
most obscene, the most unintelligible, and on the whole the best writer of 
rhetorical excellences. His most important works are first Baidehisa- 
