काव्यमीमांसा (महाकवि राजशेखर - कवि-रहस्य एवं देश-विभाग सटीक)

INTRODUCTION. XV rather difficult to declare that Rājaśekhara left both the works Bālabhārata and Kāvyamīmāṁsā unfinished. We would rather have to assume that at least the Kāvyamīmāṁsā was completed by him, since he refers frequently to the subject matter of sub- sequent chapters in the earlier portion of the Kavirahasya.¹ In that case, the probability that the Bālabhārata was his last work, will be great. If that be so, we are inclined to believe that the Kāvya- mīmāṁsā was composed at a time when his three dramas were already in existence, and this is corroborated by the fact that the Kāvyamīmāṁsā contains numerous quotations from only two of his Sanskrit dramas, namely the Bālarāmāyaṇa and the Viddhaśālabhañjikā.² The case of the Haravilāsa, however, is somewhat different, and we can understand from stray quotations in later works that it was a Mahākāvya, and probably, was composed before any of his dramas were written. In this connection it is interesting to note that if an author wants to attain the position of a Kavirāja, he has first to pass through the stage of a Mahākavi, or in other words, he has first to write a Mahākāvya³ before he is able to handle more sublime themes and thereby attain the position of a Kavirāja (see the names of 10 stages of a poet, infra, text, p. 19). From the above, it will be patent that only four works were in existence at the time when his Bālarāmāyaṇa was composed, and not six, as mentioned by the author. But since Rājaśekhara mentions six, we are led to assume that at the time of writing, he may have taken into account two of his projected works, namely, the Kāvyamīmāṁsā and the Bālabhārata. Now, the question arises as to whether Rājaśekhara wrote any other work besides the six already known. The later antho- logies do not mention or quote from any other work of Rājaśekhara

1. See Kāvyamīmāṁsā: p. 3. l. 10. अलङ्कारव्याख्यानन्तु पुरस्तात्। p. 10. l. 5. रीतयस्तिस्रस्तास्तु पुरस्तात्। p. 11. l. 10. तमौपनिषदिके वक्ष्यामः। etc.
2. The Nāndī verse of the Bālabhārata (ये सीमन्तित) may have been taken from the Kāvyamīmāṁsā, p. 71.
3. योऽन्यतरप्रबन्धे प्रवीणः स महाकविः। यस्तु तत्र तत्र भाषाविशेषे तेषु तेषु प्रबन्धेषु तस्मिंस्तस्मिंश्च रसे स्वतन्त्रः स कविराजः। Kāvyamīmāṁsā, p. 19.