Ishvara Pratyabhijna Vimarshini Part 1 (KSTS 22)

XIII

whose dates range between 550 A. D. and 650 A. D. This is also confirmed by the statement of Prof. Jacobi who says: "We cannot place Māgha later than about the middle of the 6th century A. D."

HIS STYLE.

It is interesting to observe that poets have been nicknamed for their peculiar styles in composition. Kālidāsa is nicknamed "Dipa-shikhā-kālidāsa" Kālidāsa of the Lamp-flame simile owing to the way in which he used the word "Dipashikhā" flame of the lamp; Bhāravi as Atapatra-bhāravi Umbrella-Bhāravi and Māgha as Gaṇṭā-Māgha Bell-Māgha. "We prefer this eloquence to the ingenuity which won him (Māgha) the sobriquet of 'Bell-Māgha' because of his cleverness in comparing a mountain, on one side of which the sun set while on the other the moon rose, to an elephant from whose back two bells hung, one on either side¹."

1. Keith, History of Sanskrit [Literature], p. 130.