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88 CHAPTER IV ASCARYACUDAMANI Author: Natankusa pays the following compliments to 'Saktibhadra, the author of Ascaryacudamani." 312 mahaneva ! yatkrtam natakam cudamanicudamanissatam ! sa kasyaiva na manyo'yam sakti bhadro mahakavih !" "Our author is great indeed. " The cudamani (The drama Ascaryacudamani) which was written by him is a crest jewel among good (works). By whomsoever will that great poet 'Saktibhadra be not honoured?" This is a tribute paid by the author of Natankusa while criticising the introduction of kriya after the commencement of a play. Only very little information is available about Saktibhadra. Ullur S. Parameswara Iyer says that Saktibhadra was a Namputiri by birth and that he was born in the family of Chennikkarasvarupa in Chengannur grama in Tiruvalla Taluk. 2 There is a tradition current in Kerala which recognised Saktibhadra as a contemper ory of Sankara. According to it, Sankara in the course of his tour all over the country was passing through Chengannur and he happened to meet Saktibhadra. The latter who had just then finished the composition of his play Ascaryacudamani, read it out to the Acarya for eliciting his opinion.Sankara who was at that time practising a vow of silence, remained silent with out making any remark. Dejected by the silence of the Acarya and believing that his work was too inferior to win his appreciation, Sakti bhadra consigned 1. 2. Natankusa, p-5. Kerala Sahitya Charitram, Vol. I, Ch. IX, p-112.

89 the play to fire. After his tour, Sankara again came to Chengannur and on meeting Saktibhadra enquired about the drama. When he was told that the work had been burnt Sankara thereupon recited the entire play from his prodigious memory. Thus the play was restored.3 There is no evidence other than this story in support of the contemporaneity of Saktibhadra and 'Sankara. There are similar legends involving persons who belong to different ages. The same legend is told in the 5 'Sankara Vijaya with regard to the three dramas of Rajasekhara.4 Another story similar to the above is that an uncle of Sankara, who was a staunch Mimamsaka, burnt the manuscript of Brahma Sutra Bhasya kept in Melpazur Illom and Padma pada, the disciple of Sankara, recounted the whole text from his memory. Dr. Kunjunni Raja dismisses the legend in Sankara Vijaya as of no historical value as the poem according to him "was written centuries after the great Sankara and has not much historical value being based on legends and traditions".6 3. Ibid. p-110. See also Kerala Samskrita Sahitya Charitram Vol. I, Ch.V, P-258-59. 4. Vidyaranya, Sankaravijaya, Sarga 14, Vs. 170-73, p-505. Sri A.S. Ramanatha Iyer points out a similar story connected with one Rajasekhara in the Jagadguru Ratnamalastava of Sadasiva Brahmendra. T.A.S. Vol. I p.96-114. Kerala Sahitya Charitram Ch. IX, p-110. 5. 6. Kulasekhara, the royal dramatist of Kerala, Siddha Bharati, Vol. I, Part II, p-209, 1950.

96 In the Ascaryacudamani, the following two Sutras ascribed to Canakya are found. 1. na samadhih strisu lokajnah | 17 2. nastyanantarayah kalaksepah 18 Prof. P.V. Kane assigns the date of composition of Canakya's aphorisms to a period later than that of Kautilya's Arthasastra⁹. It is probable that the work is later than 5th century A.D. Further, a study of the drama shows that Saktibhadra was familiar with the Veni Samhara of Bhatta Narayana and in two instances in his drama, we find the unmistakable influence of Veni Samhara 10. The date of Bhatta Narayana has been generally assigned by scholars to the seventh or eighth century A.D.11 So we can take seventh or eighth century as the anterior limit to the date of Saktibhadra. In the prologue to the drama, the stage direct or 7. Ashcharya Chudamani Act I, p-19. 8. Ibid. p-26. 9. History of Dharma 'Sastra, Vol. I, p-104. 10. See infra, p. 11. Keith places him in the middle of the seventh century. The Sanskrit Drama, p-112. Dr. Kunhan Raja however places him sometime in the fifth century. A Survey of Sanskrit literature, Ch. VII, p-183.

en 91 informs the actress that he is going to enact a play named Ascaryacudamani belonging to the south. The actress remarks exei.todly " arya atyahitam khalvetat, akasa prasute puspam, sikatah tailamutyadayanti, yadi daksinasya disah agatam natakanibandhanam 12 From this, it follows that its author was a native of the south. Prof. Winternitz infers that "the whole passage clearly presupposes that Saktibhadra wrote his dramas before the time of Kulasekharavarman, the author of Tapat isaivarana and Subhadradhananjayan, who is credited with the reformation of the Kerala stage and the adoption of the Sanskrit drama to the reformed stager 13. Prof. K. Rama Pisharoty also places Kulasekhara, the royal dramatist posterior to Saktibhadra 14. The date of Kulasekhara has been a bone of contention among scholars. Prof. Wintermitz believes that Kulasekhara might have ruled between 935 and 955 A.D.15 T. Ganapathi Sastry places him "between the latter part of the 10th century" and the early part of the 12th century 16. In the Vyangya Vyakhya whose author is known to have been a contemper cry of Kulasekhara there are references to the Dhvani doctrine 17, the Dasarupaka 18 12. Ashcharya Chudamani , Act-I, p-8. 13. Saktibhadra's place in the history of Sanskrit literature, Kuppuswamy Sastry Commemoration Volume, p-4. 14. Kulasekharas of Kerala, Indian Historical Quarterly, Vol. VII, p-319-330. 15. Op.cit, p-4-5. 16. Introduction to Tapatisanvarana, p.5. 17. dhvaniyuk kavyasaranah sasteti procyate T. 281, p-4. temti procyate budhaih ! 18. natakanayakalaksanam sarvam dasarupake drastavyam ! Ibid, p-125.

92 92 and Bhoja 19. Dr. N. Paramesvaran Unni identifies Bhoja referred to in the Vyangya Vyakhya with the famous Bhoja, the Paramara ruler of Malava and the author of Sarasvatikantabharana who is known to have flourished between 1005 and 1054 A.D. 20 Further, the earliest known writer to quote Kulasekharavarman is Sarvananda who lived about 1159 A.D. On the basis of these evidences Dr. Unni places Kulasekharavarman, between the latter part of the 11th century and the early part of the 12th century i.e. between 1050 A.D. and 1159 A.D.21 If this is accepted as the date of Kulasekhara, then the posterior limit to the date of Saktibhadra can be fixed to 11-12 centuries. Thus we can broadly fix the date of Saktibhadra between 7-8 centuries and 11-12 centuries A.D. The earliest work to quote Ascaryacudamani is Vidagdhajanavallabha, an unpublished anthology compiled by one Vallabhad eva belonging to Kashmir Dr. V. Raghavan assigns the work to the latter 23 part of the 12th century A.D. or early thirteenth century T.K. Krishna Menon says that the name 'Saktibhadra 22 is the pseudonym of the poet and not his original name 24. 19. va sabdah samucayavikalpanirnayesviti | . 20. 21. 22. Ibid, p-303. Vide his unpublished thesis, Ch. I, p-47. Op.cit., p-48. There are two manuscripts Nos.1604 and 1605 in the Kerala University Manuscripts Library, Trivandrum. Another manuscript No.1947 is available in the Trivandrum Palace Library. 23. Vidagdhajanavallabha, Journal of the Kerala University Manuscripts Library, Silver Jubilee Special, Vol. XII, p.154, 1963. See also Kerala Sahitya Charitram, Vol. I, Ch. IX, p-112. 24. Ascaryacudamani, A Review, Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental, Vol.VII, p-431-32, 1917.

93 Some scholars believe that 'Sankara is his real name while Saktibhadra is the name he adopted later on when he embraced 25 sannyasa. All of them have not given any tangible evidence in support of their views. The author of Vivrti interprets the name as " saktya kavitvanidanabhutena samskarana bhadra ityarthanugatameva 126 Vatakkumkur Rajarajavarma Raja dismisses it as an ingenious interpretation of the name. 27 Other works: In the prologue to Ascaryacudamani, Saktibhadra. is described as the author of other works like Unmadavasava- 28 datta. No work bearing the above name has been discovered so far and this had led various scholars to make various conjectures regarding it. According to Prof. Kuppuswamy Sastrigal, it can be identified with Pratijnayougandharayana or Vinavasava- 29 datta, There are two strong arguments against its identification with Pratijnayougandharayana. It is argued that while in Ascaryacudamani, the name of the author is mentioned, no mention of the author is made in Pratijnayougandharayana and that the title is different from what is stated in Ascaryacudamani. In this connection it is also interesting to note that no manuscript of the play Pratijnayougandharayana gives any other alternate name to the work. 25 Kerala Sahitya Charitram, Vol. I, Ch.IX, p.112. 26 Ashcharya Chudamani , Act I, p.10. 27 Kerala Samskrita Sahitya Charitram , Vol. I, Ch.V, p.259. 28 unmadavasavadattaprabhrtinam kartuh kaveh saktibhadrasyeda prajnavilasitam ! Ashcharya Chudamani [ascaryacudamani], p.10. 29 Ibid., Introduction, p.20.

94 94 The second identification with Vinavas avadatta is also equally doubtful. It may be noted that Vinavas avadatta is only a title given by Prof. Sastrigal to a manuscript found 30 in the Madras Oriental Manuscripts Library. In the said manuscript, no detail regarding the name of the author is given. Further, no complete manuscript of the work has been obtained so far. There are one manuscript and one transcript of the work in the Kerala University Manuscripts Library 31. It contains eight acts. There is great difference in style and language between it and scaryacudamani. So it cannot be a work of Saktibhadra. Dr. C. Kunhan Raja attributes it to Bhas a 32 while M.R. Kavi ascribes it to 'Sudraka 33 Sarasvati father 'S its authorship to Sudraka 34.