पृष्ठम्:विक्रमाङ्कदेवचरितम् - बिल्हण.pdf/५

INTRODUCTION.
I.
The recovery of Bilhana's Vikramánkadevacharita, or adven-
tures of King Vikramaditya-Tribhuvanamalla of Kalyána fur-
nishes the second specimen of a class of compositions, which
though, probably, once numerous, seemed, until a few years
ago, almost extinct. Like the S'rtharshacharita, the Life of
S'riharsha or Harshavardhana of Thanesar by Banabhaṭṭa, Bilha-
na's poem is a panegyric in honour of his patron and protector.
Considering that, with the exception of a certain number of re-
ligious and devotional works, the bulk of Sanskrit poetry pro-
ceeds from poets and Pandits, who lived under the protection
of princes, it might be expected, that their gratitude would
have secured to the Sankritist of these later days numerous
works recording the lives and deeds of their patrons. But,
curiously enough, lives of famous princes, like Vikrama, Bhoja
and Kumarapala, written by authors who lived centuries after
them have been known long before Dr. Fitz Edward Hall made
the find of the Harshacharita. Since then fourteen years have
elapsed before a second work of the kind has turned up.
The reason for the scarcity of such works is, I believe,
the fact that the Pandits have a greater liking for the
wonderful legends of the heroic age and for the no less
marvellous stories of those kings whom, for one reason
or another, they have lifted out of the sphere of matter-
of-fact bistory and transferred to the regions of fiction.
For the Pandit Râma, Arjuna, and Nala are as much histo-
rical persons as S'ivájî or Baji Rao Peshvà, only they
1. See Report on the search for Sanskrit MSS. 1878-4.