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Post No. 14,441

Date uploaded in London –  27 April 2025

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R S Pandit who translated Kalhana’s Rajatarangini from Sanskrit into English praised poet Kshemendra as Voltaire of Kashmir. He added more information about the poet in his footnote to one of the slokas in the book.

“Kshemendra was of a wealthy parentage, well-educated and had travelled extensively abroad. Although he was born within the fold of Saivism he had been drawn towards Vaishnavism owing to his studies with Soma Bhagavata .  His unbiased mind led him to the study of Buddhism which he esteemed very highly. A number of his works have survived, a list of which is given by Pandit M S Kaul . According to him Kshemendra lived in the period of 990-1065 CE.

The Narmamala written by the poet is a remarkable work in Sanskrit language in the style of Voltaire . Kshemendra is bitterly critical of government officials of his day – Kayasthas , but with regard to the numerous other caricatures and scenes from the daily life of the period his sarcasm is much less bitter and often Addisonian. He tells us that he was the first person to render into Sanskrit, the work of Gunadhya , Brhat-Katha or Great Story which was in Pisaca dialect . The work composed in ancient Pushto in the first century CE  must have rivalled Mahabharata which has 100 000 verses.

One of Kshemendra’s strikingly original poems which is extant in the Samayamatrka describing the rakish progress of a courtesan throughout the Kashmir valley.  The various scenes of the courtesan Kankali’s thrilling adventures  can all be easily traced  on the map.

Kshemendra was a lover and patron of the stage and a frequent play-goer. Kashmir remained the refuge of the Indian theatre after it had ceased to exist in India. In his work, Kavi Kanthabharana , Kshemendra advises aspirants  to poetic frame to improve their taste by the study of current theatrical representations. At the end of his book, the Sanskrit drama, Professor A B Keith referring to the work of Kshemendra adds

“doubtless the Mohammedan conquest seriously affected the vogue of the classical drama , which was obnoxious to the Mohammedan rulers is being closely identified both with the national religion and the national spirit of India. The kings, who had been the main support of the actors and poets alike , disappeared from their throne or suffered reverses in fortune. The tradition of dramatic performances gradually vanished”.

Kalhana in his Rajatarangini criticised Kshemendra in sloka 1-13

“While owing to incompressible lack of care in the work of Kshemendra, known as the list of kings, even a portion of it is not free from error, although it is the composition of a poet”.

***

We have lost many of Kshemendra’s works. Now we have the following books:

Abridgements

·         Ramāyaṇamanjari 

·         Bhāratamanjari 

·         Brihatkathāmanjari 

·          Brihatkatha 

·          

Poetics

·         Auchitya Vichāra Charchā

·         Kavikanthābharaṇa

·         Suvrittatilaka

Satires

·         Kalāvilasā — “A Dalliance with Deceptions”

·         Samaya Mātrikā — “The Courtesan’s Keeper”

·         Narmamālā — “A Garland of Mirth”

·         Deśopadeśa — “Advice from the Countryside”

·          

Didactic works

·         Nitikalpataru

·         Darpadalana

·         Chaturvargasaṃgraha

·         Chārucharya

·         Sevyasevakopadeśa’

·         Lokaprakāśa

·         Stūpāvadāna 

·          

·         Devotional works

·         Avadānakalpalatā 

·         Daśavataracharita 

·          

·         Historical Work

·         Nrpavali

Fourteen other works are known only from references in other literature.

***

Humour

Kshemendra’s “Kalaavilasa deals humorously with the follies of men. In “Desopadesa”, a miser wanting to take his wealth with him after death ( A lawyer may advise that a cheque may be placed in his coffin!).

***

From Wisdom Library website:

Kṣemendra (क्षेमेन्द्र) (11th century) is one among the Kashmiri scholars who glorified the legacy of rhetorics with a new interpretation of the soul of poetry namely aucitya. He is not only a poet but also a scholar of high repute. His compositions focus on a wide range of topics which mark his in depth knowledge on various subjects including treatises on poetics and prosody. He composed Kāvyas, Mahākāvyas, a drama, many didactic poems, poetical epitomes of the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and Bṛhatkathā of Guṇāḍhya (which is lost to us).

Vyasadeva

Kṣemendra was otherwise known as Vyāsadāsa as most of the colophons of his works attribute to him. He was the son of Prakāśendra, grandson of Sindhu and father of Somendra and also the brother of Cakrapāla. He was also the descendant of Narendra, the minister of King Jayāpīḍa. Kṣemenda was the disciple of Abhinavagupta, and Somapāda, who was well versed in Bhāgavata. He also studied under Gaṅgaka and Vīryabhadra (a Buddhist). He was the preceptor of Bhaṭṭa Udaya Siṃha and prince Lakṣmaṇāditya.

***

Kshemendra (c. 990 – c. 1070 CE) was a Kashmirian poet of the 11th century, writing in Sanskrit. Born into an old, cultured, and affluent family, both his education and literary output were broad and varied. He studied literature under “the foremost teacher of his time, the celebrated Shaiva philosopher and literary exponent Abhinavagupta”. He also studied — and wrote about — both Vaishnavism and Buddhism.

Kshemendra’s literary career extended from at least 1037 (his earliest dated work, Brihatkathāmanjari, a verse summary of the lost “Northwestern” Bṛhatkathā; itself a recension of Gunadhya’s lost Bṛhatkathā — “Great Story”) to 1066 (his latest dated work, Daśavataracharita, “an account of the ten incarnations of the god Visnu”). In addition to the genres listed below, Kshemendra also composed plays, descriptive poems, a satirical novel, a history, and possibly a commentary on the Kāma Sūtra (all now known only through references in other works).

***

More information is available from Ksemendra – The Peoples’ Poet

Written by  Prof. K. N. Dhar

–subham—

Tags- Kshemendra, Kashmir, Poet, satirist, dramatist, Voltaire, Brhatkatha , Vyasadeva