पृथ्वीराजविजय महाकाव्यम् (कवि जयानक - अजमेर चौहान साम्राज्य एवं सम्राट् पृथ्वीराज इतिहास)

2
that the poet Jayānaka, who is mentioned coming to
the court of Pṛithvīrāja from Kashmir in canto XII,
verses 63 and 68, was in all probability its author.
Dr. Buhler says, “The author was certainly a contem-
porary of Pṛithvīrāja and one of his court poets.
He probably was a Kashmiri and was a thoroughly
good Kavi and Pandit.”¹ This belief is further
strengthened by the fact that not a single copy of the
Ms. is found in the whole of Rajputana and Jonarāja,
the commentator of the work, also hails from
Kashmir.
It is reasonable to suppose that the work must
have been written to celebrate the great victory
of Pṛithvīrāja over Shahāb-ud-dīn Ghorī in 1191 A.D.
immediately after the event. But his defeat and
assassination in 1193 A.D. probably drove the poet
back to his home in Kashmir, hence the absence of
any Ms. of it in Rajputana.
The poem seems to have been written during the
life-time of Pṛithvīrāja, as the author himself states
that he was honoured and induced to write the
poem by the King (Pṛithvīrāja), the son of Someśvara.²
The date of the work can be fixed independently as well.
Seven verses of the Pṛithvīrājavijaya can be traced in
the Alaṅkāravimarshiṇī, a commentary by Rājānaka
Jayaratha on the Alaṅkārasarvasva of Rājānaka
Ruyyaka³ and in one place he distinctly states that it is
quoted from the Pṛithvīrājavijaya.⁴ In the same way
(1) Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, April and May,
1873, p. 94.
(2) Canto I, verses 31—35.
(3) Verses 50, 75, 91, 173, 177, 178 and 181 of canto V of the present
edition are quoted in the Alaṅkārasarvasva with the commentary
of Jayaratha, p. 64, 73, 82, 173, 180 and 181 respectively (Kāvyamālā
edition, 1893 A. D.).
(4) इयं च भेदेऽभेद इत्याद्यतिशयोक्तिभेदमध्यपि दृश्यते । तत्र
भेदेऽभेदो यथा पृथ्वीराजविजये—
‘गृहद्भिः परया भक्त्या बाणलिङ्गपरम्पराः ।
अनर्मदेव यत्सैन्यैर्निंरमीयत नर्मदा ॥’
Alaṅkārasarvasva, p. 64.