Sangita Ratnakara

Simhabhūpāla is a versatile scholar and a prolific writer. Apart from his Kuvalayāvalī and Rasārṇavasudhākara, both published in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, he must have written many other works. In the Rasārṇavasudhākara, he mentions a work called Kandarpasambhava The Birth of the God of Love as his own composition.¹ In the whole of this Rasārṇavasudhākara, he quotes from his own works about twenty-five verses in illustration of various statements he makes, with the remark, "as in my own" original: "yathā mamaiva". A few of them are traceable to his Kuvalayāvalī as is mentioned in the Preface to that drama in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series. We have as yet no information about the other verses quoted from his works.

In Aufrecht’s Catalogus Catalogorum The "Catalog of Catalogs," a massive 19th-century effort to list all known Sanskrit manuscripts, there is an entry of Nāṭakaparibhāṣā Definitions of Dramaturgy as a work of Siṅgadharaṇīsena. The entry is made on p. 284 as found in Buhler’s Report and on p. 791 as found in the India Office. The manuscripts in the India Office are described by Eggeling under Nos. 1201 and 1202. Evidently the author is Siṅgadharaṇīśa A variant of the King's name meaning "Singa, Lord of the Earth" and Siṅgadharaṇīsena must be the Instrumental SingularA grammatical case in Sanskrit indicating "by" or "with" form with sa for śa.² It is not a separate work; it is only a part of Simhabhūpāla’s Rasārṇavasudhākara beginning from verse 290 on p. 298.

There is no reason to believe that the Rasārṇavasudhākara was written by Viśveśvara A scholar-poet who some critics suggested might have been the true author behind the King's name on the ground that—

¹ He says: "As in my own Kandarpasambhava:" original: "yathā kandarpasambhave mamaiva"

O Uma, at that moment, the craftsman of passion, seeking to unify the hearts of both, caused them to melt through the heat of love, as if by a searingly hot sigh.

² Eggeling gives the name as Siṅgadharaṇīśa.