Ishvara Pratyabhijna Vimarshini Part 1 (KSTS 22)

XII

of Upamitibhāva-prapanchakathā Story of the Manifestation of the Nature of Comparison (906 A. D.), Dr. Klatt opines that Māgha lived in the early part of the 10th century A. D. But there is sufficient internal evidence to prove that Māgha may have existed in the beginning of or earlier than the 9th century A. D., for Anandavardhanāchārya, a famous exponent of the Dhvani suggestion/implied meaning school (850 A. D.), has quoted two verses by way of examples from the Shishupālavadham The Killing of Shishupāla¹. He is similarly posterior to Jinendrabodhi (650 A. D.), whose work Kashikanyasa Commentary on the Kashi (grammar) is alluded to by the poet in the present work². The date of Māgha ranges, therefore, between 650 A. D. and 800 A. D. But happily there exists an inscription³ of a certain king Varmalata who flourished about 625 A. D. Relying on this, Māgha Bhaṭṭa may safely be placed in the latter part of the 7th century A. D. This also is in conformity with the consensus of scholars that Māgha is posterior to Bhāravi (634 A. D.), Bhatti (6th or 7th century), Kumāradāsa (6th century A. D.), Bāna (c. 625 A. D.), Subandhu (c. 600 A. D.), and Nyāsakāra (650 A. D.).

1. Cf. Shloka 26, Canto V; Shloka 53, Canto III.
2. Cf. Shloka 112, Canto II.
3. J. R. A. S. 1908, p. 499.