rāja of the Paramāra dynasty of Mālava.[1] He came to the throne in 974 A. D., succeeding his father Sīyaka, and held sway until about 995,[2] when he was defeated, taken captive, and executed by the neighboring Cālukya king Tailapa II. (or Taila),[3] whom he had, according to the author Merutuṅga, conquered in six previous campaigns.[4]
Muñja was not only an intrepid warrior, but a poet[5] and patron of letters as well. Padmagupta, the author of the Navasāhasāṅkacarita, twice calls the king a ‘friend of poets’[6] and states that it was because of royal favor that he, too, was able to ‘wander along the path trod by the master-poets.’[7] The lexicographer Halāyudha also, in commenting on the metrical treatise of Piṅgala, includes stanzas in praise of Muñja’s liberality.[8] Furthermore
- ↑ For inscriptions regarding this dynasty see Ep. Ind. 1. 222–238; 2. 180–195. Cf. Bühler, op. cit. pp. 603–630; Fleet, ‘The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts,’ 2d ed., p. 432, in Bombay Gazetteer, 1 (1896), pt. 2; Bhandarkar, ‘Early History of the Dekkan,’ ibid. p. 214.
- ↑ On the date see Bühler, op. cit. pp. 624–625.
- ↑ Muñja’s execution is attested by Cālukya inscriptions; see Ind. Ant. 12. 270; 16. 18, 23; 21. 167–168; Ep. Ind. 2. 212–221. Cf. Kielhorn, Ep. Ind. 2. 214–215.
- ↑ Bühler (op. cit. p. 623) gives the text as follows: śapathadānapūrvakaṃ niṣidhya tam purā ṣoḍhā nirjitam ity avajñatayā paśyann atirekavaśāt tāṃ saritam uttīrya skandhāvāraṃ niveśayām āsa. Cf. Prabandhacintāmaṇi, tr. Tawney, Calcutta, 1901, p. 33. Bühler inadvertently translated ṣoḍhā as ‘sechzehnmal,’ and this mistake has been perpetuated by him, Ep. Ind. 1. 227, and by Vincent Smith, Early History of India, p. 317, 328 (2d ed. p. 365, 389).—On Muñja’s military exploits see Bühler, Ep. Ind. 1. 227–228. His defeat by Balirāja, a Cāhamāna chief, is mentioned in an inscription of about 1262 A. D.; see Ep. Ind. 9. 71.—For the legendary account of Muñja, as given in the Bhojaprabandha, see Lassen. Indische Alterthumskunde, 3 (Leipzig, 1858), pp. 837–841.
- ↑ Muñja, the author of the Gaüḍavaho, lived early in the eighth century, under King Yaśovarman. Peterson’s identification of him with the Paramāra ruler Muñja-Vākpati (Subhāṣitāvali, p. 113) is erroneous. A similar mistake is found in Kāvyamālā, part 1 (2d ed., Bombay, 1893), p. 131, where one of the editors assigns to Utpalarāja (= Muñja) the authorship of the Pratyabhijñāsūtra, a work composed by a Śaivite guru named Utpaladeva, who lived about 930 A. D.
- ↑ Navasāh. I. 8: kavibāndhava; II. 93: kavimitra.
- ↑ Navasāh. I. 7. The text is given below, p. xxvi, note 1.
- ↑ For the text of one of them see p. xxv, note 7, below.
