Sangita Ratnakara

In the Camatkāracandrikā Moonlight of Wonders, the scholar Viśveśvara refers the reader to the Rasārṇavasudhākara The Moon of the Ocean of Aesthetic Emotion for further details.¹ It is becoming a fashion nowadays to attribute all works bearing the name of a king to some court poet or court scholar. Unless there is definite evidence—as in the case of the Saṅgītasudhā The Nectar of Music, which is assigned to King Raghunātha but mentioned as being written by Govinda Dīkṣita by his son Veṅkaṭamakhin²—we must accept that the king himself wrote these works.

The kings in ancient and even in medieval India were not mere figureheads in administration; nor were they mere administrators. They were the true representatives of the civilization of the country. In their intellectual equipment, in their cultural accomplishments, and in every aspect of their lives, they represented civilization in its ideal form. They maintained Dharma A foundational Sanskrit term for duty, cosmic order, and the moral law that sustains civilization, which is another word for civilization; they lived according to Dharma also. Besides being warriors, conquerors, and rulers, they were learned scholars, poets, philosophers, and authors, as well as patrons of learning and the arts.

They recognized only a unified Indian Dharma or civilization without any racial prejudices. Siṁhabhūpāla himself says that he belonged to the lowest caste³ He likely refers to the Shudra varna, emphasizing that his royal power comes from merit and duty rather than the highest social birth; at the same time, he honored the Brahmins The priestly and scholarly class and protected religion. Neither caste distinction nor sectarian differences interfered with the unity of culture under the rule of those great Indian kings.

¹ Cf. Dr. M. Krishnamacharyar's Classical Sanskrit Literature, para 879, p. 771.
² See note 1 on p. XI. above.
³ See note 4 on p. XIII. above.