काव्यालङ्कार (आचार्य भामह - भारतीय काव्यशास्त्र एवं अलङ्कार-सिद्धान्त मूल महाग्रन्थ सटीक)

PREFACE
पूर्वेभ्यो भामहादिभ्यः सादरं विहिताञ्जलिः ।
वक्ष्ये सम्यगलंकारशास्त्रसर्वस्वसंग्रहम् ॥
In this verse which is the second after the Maṅ-
gala śloka in Pratāparudrīya, the beginner in Sans-
krit Poetics first meets with the name of Bhāmaha.
That Vidyānātha, the author of Pratāparudrīya
and a great Ālaṅkārika belonging to the Vedic
religion, thus pays homage to Bhāmaha next to
Goddess Sarasvatī indicates that the ancient Bhā-
maha belonged to the same religion as Vidyānātha.
The controversy that has raged for a long time
whether Bhāmaha was a Hindu or a Buddhist has
been slightly touched upon in our Notes on the very
first stanza of this work, and in our opinion the
grounds for suggesting that Bhāmaha was a Bud-
dhist are flimsy.
Traditionally Bhāmaha is believed to be a Kash-
miri. He describes himself as the son of Rakrila
Gomin towards the end of this work. Vide सुजनावग-
माय भामहेन ग्रथितं रक्रिलगोमिसूनुनेदम् VI—64. It is suggested
in some quarters that ‘Gomin’ (a contraction of Go-
svāmin ?) resembles a Buddhistic appellation, but
Mr. Trivedi in his Introduction to प्रतापरुद्रयशोभूषण points
out that it is a caste designation added after the