DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

8.8] DANDIN SUBHASITA 289
by those who thought Sanskrit the finest of languages, and spent endless
effort to make it still more intricate. In prose, the poet Baza’s romantic
biography of Harsa neglects history for romance and strives to pack
every phrase with at least two meanings. His Kadambari virtually
killed Sanskrit prose as a useful literary medium by setting the norm
for monstrous compounds that take hours to unravel. The most attractive
of Sanskrit prose writers, probably (a southerner from Pallava territory)
of the seventh century seems to me to be Dandin, author of ‘The Ten
Princess’. For verve, gusto, controlled flamboyance, gentle humour
and irony, and extensive knowledge of life among all strata of common
people, this work is without peer. Yet, all that survives as authentic is a
central fragment. Dandin seems to have been less handy for a courtier’s
model than Bana. The subhasita epigram which is so prominent a
feature of Sanskrit literature, to the extent that is
survives from plays whose text, action, titles, and authorship have
sunk into oblivion, had also a special function as feudalism
developed. Skillfully used for outrageous flattery it was a way to royal
favour. It meant some employment in what might be called the ‘civil
service’, inditing documents and letters. Models of such documents
exist, e.g. the Lokaprakasa ascribed to Ksemendra, and the
Lekhdpaddhati (COS 19). The latter is a complete collection of
scribe’s examples : letters from upper-class people in all stations of
life, judgments and sentences, agreements, notices and certificates for
taxes, tolls, and dues. The MS scans to date from about A. D. 1476,
though many of the pieces bear earlier dates such as 1232 and 746. It
helps illustrate the workings of later feudalism in Gujarat. The upper
classes used Sanskrit as a medium of communication primarily through
paid scribes. The subhasita performed a function corresponding to the
equally artifical paku essay in imperial China from the Ming dynasty.
The most important function of Sanskrit was to lend weight and
sanction of antiquity to new cults, observances, ritual. The actual ritual
might be older than the vedas, but was local, and embarassingly
absent from the accepted brahmin scriptures. The process of
mutual assimilation required equal sanction of authority that could be
passed off as genuine. The vedas did not help, as their text was filed by