महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

Introduction [xlvi
the matter either way. A man of to-day, and fifty years old, may say
'The influence of Bacon appears even now in my style'. But you cannot
decide from the words 'even now' whether it was the reading of Francis
Bacon's Essays in the man's college days or the personal influence of a
teacher of English named Bacon that he has in mind. The phrase merely
implies the lapse of an interval of time. Accordingly, admitting the
influence without trying to decide whether it was by the spoken or the
written word, and admitting the interval without trying to determine
its length,—we are probably justified in concluding that Bhavabhūti's
connexion with the court of Yaśovarman fell in the earlier part of that
monarch's reign, and that the dramatist was somewhat earlier than
Vākpatirāja.
14. Bhavabhūti probably flourished near the close of the seventh
century.—The considerations recited above point to the following con-
clusions. Bhavabhūti's activity is certainly later than that of Kālidāsa, and
for Kālidāsa the middle of the fifth century is most probable. We can also
say that Bhavabhūti is probably later than even Bāṇa, who flourished about
610. Bhavabhūti appears to have lived, if not at the court of Yaśovarman
of Kanauj, at least during the reign of that king, and before the date
of Vākpatirāja's Gaüḍavaho, which we set at about 736. Accordingly we
may conclude with some confidence that Bhavabhūti flourished in the
closing years of the seventh century.

Bhavabhūti's Works

15. Lost works of Bhavabhūti.—The first question that presents itself
is, did Bhavabhūti write anything besides the three plays that we at present
know to be his? Stanzas ascribed to Bhavabhūti are found in various
anthologies dating from the twelfth century onwards, and among them are
a number of stanzas which do not occur in any one of the three plays of
our poet. The natural inference is that Bhavabhūti wrote some other works,
perhaps dramas, perhaps kāvyas (poems), which have not come down to us.
Dr. Bhandarkar, however, on the basis of a distinction which Jalhaṇa, one
of the anthologists, makes between an author called Mālatīmādhava, and
Bhavabhūti the author of the play called Mālatī-Mādhava, comes to the
conclusion that the stray verses in the anthologies belong not to Bhavabhūti
but to the author Mālatīmādhava. But there is no valid ground for this
distinction, which is unknown to other anthologists earlier as well as later.
And even according to Jalhaṇa's Sūktimuktāvali, Bhavabhūti wrote at
least one stanza (Yadaivārabhyāntaḥ, &c.: see Dr. Bhandarkar's Report for