काव्यमीमांसा (महाकवि राजशेखर - कवि-रहस्य एवं देश-विभाग सटीक)

XXVI INTRODUCTION.
for the last fifty years or more, in which celebrated scholars have
taken part. Kālidāsa must be a contemporary of Candragupta
Vikramāditya and the Vākāṭaka Pṛthvīṣeṇa, and thus he should
be assigned a period corresponding to the last quarter of the fourth
century A. D.¹
While mentioning the four boundaries of the city of Kanauj,
the capital of his patron kings Mahendrapāla and Mahīpāla, Rāja-
śekhara clears up several topographical problems connected with
the city, and helps us in identifying certain well-known names of
places, identifications of which were open to doubt for a long time.
On page 94 he mentions four places: Vāmanasvāmī, Gādhipura,
Kālapriya and Brahmaśilā, and all of them seem to be situated
in the four directions of the city of Kanauj. Thus, we can under-
stand that these four well-known places in literature were the
suburbs of the city of Kanauj. For further details the attention
of readers is invited to the page 243, of the explanatory notes
appended to this edition.
III. The Geography of Bhāratavarṣa.
Rājaśekhara's fondness for geography is borne out by the
numerous references to geographical names mentioned in his works,
and the ancient notions regarding world geography find a lucid
expression in these productions. He gives geographical references
in abundance, particularly in two works, namely, the Bālarāmāyaṇa
and the Kāvyamīmāṁsā. In the former work, while staging the
Sītāsvayaṁvara, a short drama supposed to be a composition of the
sage Bharata, and while describing the aerial flight of Rāma to
Ayodhyā from Laṅkā, he mentions a large number of places in
succession, and these references enable us to fix their location with
a fair degree of exactitude.
In the 17th chapter of the Kāvyamīmāṁsā, the author gives
by far the most prolific geographical information regarding the
divisions of the world, and the details of the Bhāratavarṣa, and this
represents the expert knowledge of geography as prevalent in his
time. The earth, he says, is divided into seven great islands
encircled by seven oceans. Among these the Jambūdvīpa is

1. For further information on the date of Kālidāsa and his connections
   with Vākāṭaka kings, see my Paper entitled “King Pravarasena and Kālidāsa”
   in the Proceedings of the Seventh All-India Oriental Conference, 1933.