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Jyotirishwar Thakur
Jyotirishwar Thakur or IAST (IAST: IAST)
(1290–1350) was a Maithil poet and an early Maithili and Sanskrit writer, known for the Varṇa Ratnākara, his encyclopedic work in Maithili.
Life[edit | edit source]
Jyotirishwar was son of IAST (IAST: IAST)
and grandson of
IAST (IAST: IAST)
. He was the court poet of King Harisimhadeva of the Karnat dynasty of Mithila (r. 1300–1324).
Major works[edit | edit source]
His most significant work in Maithili, the IAST (IAST: IAST)
(1324) is an encyclopedic work in prose. This work contains descriptions of various subjects and situations. This work provides valuable information about the life and culture of medieval India.[1] The text is divided into seven Kallolas (waves):
IAST (IAST: IAST)
,
IAST (IAST: IAST)
,
IAST (IAST: IAST)
,
IAST (IAST: IAST)
,
IAST (IAST: IAST)
,
IAST (IAST: IAST)
and
IAST (IAST: IAST)
. An incomplete list of 84 Siddhas is found in the text, which consists only 76 names. A manuscript of this text is preserved in the Asiatic Society, Kolkata (ms. no 4834 of Asiatic Society of Bengal).[2]
His major Sanskrit play, the IAST (IAST: IAST)
(The Meeting of the Knaves) (1320) is a two act Prahasana (comedy). The play relates the contest between a religious mendicant
IAST (IAST: IAST)
and his disciple
IAST (IAST: IAST)
over a lovely courtesan
IAST (IAST: IAST)
whom the Brahmin arbitrator
IAST (IAST: IAST)
keeps for himself.[3] Superior characters in this drama speak in Sanskrit, inferior characters speak in Prakrit and the songs are in Maithili.[4]
His another Sanskrit work, the IAST (IAST: IAST)
(Five Arrows) in five parts deals with the same topics which are dealt in the other standard works on the [[Kama Sutra|
IAST (IAST: IAST)
]].[5]
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Majumdar 1960, p. 515. "The Varṇa Ratnākara of Jyotirīśvara Ṭhākura ... was written about 1325. This is a work of set descriptions of various subjects and situations, to supply ready-made cliché passages to story-tellers ... [it] is important, not only because it gives us specimens of pure Maithilī prose ... but also because it is a store-house of information, conveyed through words, about the life and culture of early Medieval India in all their aspects."
- ↑ Shastri, Haraprasad (ed.) (2006). Hajar Bacharer Purano Bangala Bhasay Bauddhagan O Doha (in Bengali) Kolkata: Bangiya sahitya Parishad, pp.35-6
- ↑ Majumdar 1960, p. 471. "[Describing erotic and farcical Sanskrit literature:] Dhūrtasamāgama is a Prahasana by Jyotirīśvara Ṭhākura ... c. 1320 ... The play relates the contest between a religious mendicant Viśvanagara and his pupil Durāchāra over a lovely courtesan Anaṅgasenā , whom the Brāhmaṇa arbitrator Asajjāti keeps for himself."
- ↑ Jha, V.N. (2003). Sanskrit Writings in Independent India, New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, ISBN 81-260-1812-7, p.179
- ↑ Majumdar 1960, p. 488. "The Pañchasāyaka by Jyotirīśvara Ṭhākura ... epitomises in five parts all that is said in standard works on Kāmaśāstra."
References[edit | edit source]
- Chatterji S.K. and S.K. Mishra (ed.) (1940).
IAST (IAST: IAST)
of
IAST (IAST: IAST)
, Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta: The Asiatic Society.
- Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra; Pusalker, A. D.; Majumdar, A. K., eds. (1960). The History and Culture of the Indian People. VI: The Delhi Sultanate. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
External links[edit | edit source]
IAST (IAST: IAST)
text]
IAST (IAST: IAST)
pdf]
- [http://catalogue-old.ngmcp.uni-hamburg.de/wiki/A_346-17_Dh%C5%ABrtasam%C4%81gaman%C4%81%E1%B9%ADaka
IAST (IAST: IAST)
]
IAST (IAST: IAST)
]
IAST (IAST: IAST)
]