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Rāmākathā —a Study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

The latest work published in the Balamanoramā Series is Vāsudeva's Rāma-kathā.

The editor has rightly pointed out that the author cannot be the famous Nārāyana Bhaṭṭatiri, the famous poet-grammarian-devotee of Kerala, as was suggested by the late lamented Mm. T. Gaṇapati Sāstri. One may not subscribe to all that he has said about Kulaśekhara, but it must be conceded that he has laid proper emphasis on the fact that our author cannot be identified with the famous Yamakapoet who wrote the Yudhiṣṭhira-vijaya. It may also be admitted with the editor that he cannot be the same as the author of Śāurikathodaya and Tripura-dahana, for their parentage differs, and the styles of the two are different. Similarly, it may well be accepted that our author is identical with the writer of Saṃkṣepa-rāmāyanṇa and Sº-bhārata. So far I agree with him; but I am not so sure that the authors of Rāma-kathā and of Vāsudeva-vijaya, the grammatical treatise to which Nārāyana wrote his supplement, cannot be identical. I cannot also agree in assigning this Vāsudeva to the seventeenth century, a view that has been induced by an incorrect reading and a wrong interpretation.

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Papers Contributed
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1930

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