Ratnakara

Ratnākara was a Sanskrit poet in premodern India. His magnum opus, the Haravijaya, containing 4,351 verses, is the longest extant mahākāvya. His work has been praised in many Sanskrit anthologies and works on rhetorics.

Life Very little is known about Ratnākara's life. He is referred to as a dependent of Bālabṛhaspati—generally assumed to be an epithet of Cippaṭajayāpīḍa—in the colophons of the Haravijaya'''s cantos. In the praśasti of the Haravijaya he speaks of himself as the son of Amṛtabhānu, a descendant of Durgadatta from Gangāhrada in the Himalayas. Kalhaṇa's Rājataraṅgiṇī lists him as one of the poets active at the court of Avantivarman .

Works Haravijaya

The Haravijaya, described as Ratnākara's magnum opus, is the longest extant Sanskrit mahākāvya, containing a total of 4,351 verses in fifty sargas (cantos). The poem narrates Śiva's victory over Andhaka and also describes Śiva's iconographic features and gives an exposition of Śaiva philosophy. Peter Pasedach lists three commentaries on the poem: Viṣamapadoddyotā by Alaka, Laghupañcikā by Ratnakaṇṭha, and Haravijayasāravivaraṇa by Utpala. An edition of the work was published in 1890, prepared by Pandit Durgaprasad and Kasinath Pandurang Parab for the Kāvyamālā series. Another edition of the text was prepared by Dr. Goparaju Rama for the Ganganatha Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapitha Text Series and published in two volumes from 1982.

Vakroktipañcāśikā

The Vakroktipañcāśikā, possibly Ratnākara's only other preserved work, contains fifty verses of dialogue between Śiva and Pārvatī, employing the device of vakrokti ("verbal distortion"); Yigal Bronner and Lawrence McCrea argue that Ratnākara may have invented this poetic device. Vallabhadeva has commented upon the work. An edition of the Vakroktipañcāśikā, by Durgaprasad and Parab, including Vallabhadeva's commentary, was published in Number 1 of the Kāvyamālā Anthology series in 1886.

Other works The Ratnākarapurāṇa, attributed to Ratnākara, is a now-lost chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, covering two "gaps" in Kalhaṇa's Rājataraṅginī. The Dhvanigāthāpañcikā, dealing with Prakrit verses in Ānandavardhana's Dhvanyāloka, is sometimes attributed to Ratnākara. The identity of this work's author with the author of Haravijaya is "practically impossible", as it appears to be an abridged version of the relevant sections of the Locana of Abhinavagupta, who lived after the author of the Haravijaya.

Legacy Ratnākara's work has been praised in many Sanskrit anthologies and works on rhetorics. The Haravijaya'' is also held in high esteem by modern Indian Sanskrit scholars. Rājaśekhara complimented Ratnākara with the following verse: