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

XXII INTRODUCTION. name of Khasādhipati or S'akādhipati, his identity and the iden- tification of his capital Alipura, the author of the verse in question, and the king to whom it is addressed. The verse in question makes it clear that the engagement between the Gupta and Khasa kings took place in the Himālayan region, and thus it can be said that Alipura, the capital of the Khasa or S'aka king, was situated somewhere in the Himālayas. Moreover, according to Rājaśekhara's version the victor is called the Khasādhipati, and the Gupta king is named as S'arma- gupta or Senagupta instead of S'akādhipati and Rāmagupta ob- tained from sources other than the Kāvyamīmāṁsā. There seems to be an agreement at least on one point, namely, that the S'aka or Khasa king referred to in the passage in question, should represent a Kushāṇa king of the Punjab but not a S'aka Satrap of either Malwa or Mathura. But in this connection, attention of scholars is required to be invited to the form Khasā- dhipati as recorded in the Kāvyamīmāṁsā. This particular word means a king of the Khasas or the Khasa tribes the existence of which is made well-known by the Rājatarangiṇī of Kalhaṇa. Sir Aurel Stein located the tribe in the widely distributed regions of the western Himālayas flanking the boundaries of Kashmir with their capital at Rajapuri also known as Khasālaya or Khasālī. The Khasas before the fifth century A. D. became very powerful and seized the kingdom of Kashmir and ruled over it.¹ Is it not possible to identify this Alipura with Khasālī, the capital of the Khasas ? Let us now discuss the question regarding the identity of the person to whom the verse in question is addressed. Various scholars have advanced different opinions, and let us examine them in detail and make an attempt to discover whether any finality can be reached. A clue to this vexed question is, however, supplied by the verse itself in its fourth line: गीयन्ते तव कार्त्तिकेयनगरस्त्रीणां गणैः कीर्तयः । In interpreting this line Prof. Altekar² has fallen into the regrettable error of taking the word Kārttikeya in the vocative and in assuming that the verse is addressed to Kārttikeya who is obviously the Kumāragupta I of the Gupta dynasty.

1. M. A. Stein. Rājatarangiṇī translation. Vol. I. 317.
2. J. B. O. R. S. Vol. xiv. p. 223.