10 
Vestiges of Three Royal Lines of Kanyakubja, 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- 
Icds'a , an homonymic lexicon, by Mahes'wara, written in the year 
1111 of our era.f 
To the Vis' wa-prakas a we may certainly add the numerous pro¬ 
ductions of S nharsha, 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 LChandana-khanda-kliddya. All that we can be sure of, in 
respect of the age of S'nharsha, is, that he was later than Kings 
Chhanda and Sahasanka, and earlier than the Saraswati-kantha - 
bharana , in which the Naishadlia-cliarita is quoted. J 
* On the faith of the Rdja-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 Yakpati. See the Asiatic Researches , Yol. XV., pp. 45, 86. 
t Having Kanauj in view, Professor Wilsoii alleges, that “ A prince named 
Sahasanka must have occupied the throne about the middle of the tenth century j 
as Mahes'wara, the author of the Vis’wa-prakds a in the year 1111, makes him¬ 
self sixth in descent from the physician of that monarch.” Asiatic Researches , 
Yol. 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. Aufrecht’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 Sahasanka-charita. Sahasanka, of whom we have just read, 
was, without much doubt, lord of Kanauj. S'nharsha, to whom we shall come 
presently, wrote a Nava-sahasanka-charita. This name lends colour, at first 
sight, to the view, that S'nharsha was posterior to Mahes'wara. The reverse was 
the case, possibly ; and S'nharsha may have rivalled some earlier biographer of 
Sahasanka; whence his choice of a title. 
Mahes'wara was contemporary with king Madanapala; and Sahasanka, if of 
Kanauj, was of the family from which the realm was usurped by Chandra. 
% For further particulars, see the Preface to the Fasavadatta, pp; 17, 18, 
foot-note. 
A caustic anecdote is told of S'nharsha. I have often heard it from the 
mouths of the pandits ; and it has been related, in print, by Pandit fs'wara* 
chandra Vidyasagara, in his Bangali pamphlet entitled Sanskrita-bhasha o-Sans- 
krita-s ahity a-s'dstra-visli ay alca -prasia va. 
