पृथ्वीराजविजय महाकाव्यम् (कवि जयानक - अजमेर चौहान साम्राज्य एवं सम्राट् पृथ्वीराज इतिहास)

2 that the poet Jayānaka, who is mentioned coming to the court of Pṛithvīrāja from Kashmir in canto XII, verses 63 and 68, was in all probability its author. Dr. Buhler says, “The author was certainly a contem- porary of Pṛithvīrāja and one of his court poets. He probably was a Kashmiri and was a thoroughly good Kavi and Pandit.”¹ This belief is further strengthened by the fact that not a single copy of the Ms. is found in the whole of Rajputana and Jonarāja, the commentator of the work, also hails from Kashmir. It is reasonable to suppose that the work must have been written to celebrate the great victory of Pṛithvīrāja over Shahāb-ud-dīn Ghorī in 1191 A.D. immediately after the event. But his defeat and assassination in 1193 A.D. probably drove the poet back to his home in Kashmir, hence the absence of any Ms. of it in Rajputana. The poem seems to have been written during the life-time of Pṛithvīrāja, as the author himself states that he was honoured and induced to write the poem by the King (Pṛithvīrāja), the son of Someśvara.² The date of the work can be fixed independently as well. Seven verses of the Pṛithvīrājavijaya can be traced in the Alaṅkāravimarshiṇī, a commentary by Rājānaka Jayaratha on the Alaṅkārasarvasva of Rājānaka Ruyyaka³ and in one place he distinctly states that it is quoted from the Pṛithvīrājavijaya.⁴ In the same way (1) Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, April and May, 1873, p. 94. (2) Canto I, verses 31—35. (3) Verses 50, 75, 91, 173, 177, 178 and 181 of canto V of the present edition are quoted in the Alaṅkārasarvasva with the commentary of Jayaratha, p. 64, 73, 82, 173, 180 and 181 respectively (Kāvyamālā edition, 1893 A. D.). (4) इयं च भेदेऽभेद इत्याद्यतिशयोक्तिभेदमध्यपि दृश्यते । तत्र भेदेऽभेदो यथा पृथ्वीराजविजये— ‘गृहद्भिः परया भक्त्या बाणलिङ्गपरम्पराः । अनर्मदेव यत्सैन्यैर्निंरमीयत नर्मदा ॥’ Alaṅkārasarvasva, p. 64.