Two Less Known Works of Bilhana
By M. A. Dhaky
Summary
The article examines two relatively neglected works of the Kashmiri poet Bilhaṇa—the four act play Karnasundarī nāṭikā and the hymn Bilhaṇa staka—establishing their authorship, historical context, and literary qualities with close internal and comparative evidence. Karnasundarī nāṭikā Karnasundarī nāṭikā is a four act Sanskrit play composed by Bilhaṇa during his stay in Gujarat in the early years of Caulukya/Solanki king Karṇadeva (reigned 1064–1094 CE), at the capital Anahilapaṭaka/Anahillapattana, and was likely staged around 1075 CE during a ratha yātrā mahotsava of Bhagavān Nābheya (Jina Ādinātha Ṛṣabha) organized by the Jaina minister Sampatkara (Śāntu) in a temple setting. Although the plot is non Jaina and formally conventional, the play opens with an Arhat invoking nandi, uses powerful royal stanzas, and concludes with a four verse praśasti explicitly naming “Bhattashrī Bilhaṇa,” whose style and self presentation match the author of Vikramāṅkadevacarita, thereby confirming common authorship and Brahmanical affiliation. By correlating Hemacandra’s Dvyāśraya kāvya and Merutuṅga’s Prabandhacintāmaṇi, the study identifies the heroine Karnasundarī with princess Mailaladevī (Mayanalladevī), daughter of Kadamba chief Jayakeśi I of Candrapura (Candor in Śālsette), who marries Karṇadeva through a series of dramatic events, thus embedding the play in concrete Western Indian political history. Bilhaṇa staka on Pārśvanātha The second work, Bilhaṇa staka, is a nine verse hymn to Jina Pārśvanātha, transmitted in palm leaf manuscripts from Pāṭaṇa and earlier printed in two now scarce Jain stotra collections (Jainastotrasangraha Vārāṇasī 1912 and Jainastotrasandoha Prastāvanā, Ahmedabad 1936). Muni Caturavijaya’s attribution of this hymn to the Kashmiri Bilhaṇa is supported here by stylistic and historical arguments: its high but not over ornate 11th century diction, clear difference from contemporary Jaina prose poets of western India and the Dravida Saṅgha, the colophon naming “mahākavi Bilhaṇa,” and strong parallels in genre, cadence, word choice, and structuring with Karnasundarī nāṭikā and Vikramāṅkadevacarita. The hymn, perhaps composed at the behest of minister Śāntuka during Bilhaṇa’s sojourn in Anahilapaṭaka, offers sonorous and well balanced verses on Pārśvanātha—especially the Dharanendra motif and the episode of the demon Kamatha’s assaults—combining elegant figures (similes, alliteration, yamaka) with pronounced devotional fervour, and is assessed as one of the finest medieval hymns to Pārśvanātha, the full Sanskrit text being appended in the article. Scholarly positioning The author differentiates the genuine Kashmiri Bilhaṇa from spurious or distinct namesakes associated with Caurapañcāśikā and Bilhaṇacarita on stylistic grounds and prior critical work by Muni Caturavijaya. The article also situates these two compositions within wider historiography on the Caulukyas and Kadambas of Candor/Goa, and notes that a revised version of the study has appeared after its initial publication in a felicitation volume for A. V. Narasimhamurti, thereby updating earlier research on Bilhaṇa’s oeuvre and his engagement with Jaina milieus in Western India.
Conclusion
Bilhaṇa’s Karnasundarī‑nāṭikā and Bilhaṇa‑staka together reveal a Kashmiri Brahmin poet who could assimilate and artistically transform western Indian political history and Jaina devotional environments without abandoning his own literary identity, thus extending his significance far beyond the Vikramāṅkadevacarita alone. Read as a pair, the temple‑staged, Arhat‑invoking nāṭikā for Karṇadeva and the finely wrought stotra to Pārśvanātha—almost certainly composed in the same Anahilapaṭaka milieu—demonstrate that Bilhaṇa was not only a court panegyrist but also a major intermediary between regional Jaina networks and the broader Sanskrit cosmopolis, enriching both Jaina hymnography and the historical reconstruction of Caulukya–Kadamba interactions in the 11th century.