Kavyamimamsa of Rajasekhara (Study)

by Debabrata Barai | 2014 | 105,667 words

This page relates ‘Lost Works (1): The Haravilasa’ of the English study on the Kavyamimamsa of Rajasekhara: a poetical encyclopedia from the 9th century dealing with the ancient Indian science of poetics and rhetoric (also know as alankara-shastra). The Kavya-mimamsa is written in eighteen chapters representing an educational framework for the poet (kavi) and instructs him in the science of applied poetics for the sake of making literature and poetry (kavya).

Part 17 - Lost Works (1): The Haravilāsa

[Full title: Lost Works of Rājaśekhara: (i) The Haravilāsa]

The Mahākāvya Haravilāsa attributed to Rājaśekhara but in present time we can’t found it. In the Kāvyānuśāsana (of Hemacandra), Ācārya Hemacandra has quoted in this work and says:

svanāmāṅkatā yathā rājaśokharasya haravilāse |”

- Kāvyānuśāsana of Hemacandra

There he also refers another two śloka cited from Haravilāsa as:

āśīryathā haravilāse —
omityekākṣaraṃ vrahma śrutīnāṃ mukhamakṣaram |
prasīdatu satāṃ svānteṣvekaṃ tripuruṣīmayam
|| ”

- Kāvyānuśāsana of Hemacandra

And another is:

sujanadurjana - caritaṃ yathā haravilāse —
itastato bhaṣan bhuri na patet phiśunaḥ śunaḥ |
avadātatayā kiṃ ca na bhedo haṃsataḥ sataḥ
|| ”

- Kāvyānuśāsana of Hemacandra

There are certain references to this work are Bhoja’s Śṛṅgāraprakaśa and Ujjavala dutta’s example of Unādisūtra i.e.

daśanavakṣiptakhuraprakhaṇḍitaḥ kvacid gatārtho haradīdhitiryathā |” iti haravilāse |
- Ujjavala dutta’s Unādisūtra: 2/28

The theme of Haravilāsa is supposed to be related with Lord Śiva’s

destruction of some Asuras.

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