पवनदूतम् /27
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a most suitable abode for the heorine of his poem.* But we
are not sure if there is any reference here to a temporary and
not probably very successful incursion undertaken by the
king either independently or in the company of some prince
of the Chalukya dynasty, a member of which dynasty Laks-
mana's mother was.
Geographical information from the Pavanadūta :-
The great importance of the Pavanaduta like that of some
other dutakāvyas lies in the geographical information, afforded
in the present case by the description it gives of the route
from the Malaya hills to Vijayapura the capital of Lakṣmaṇasena
in Bengal.
It is true that from this description it is not possible for
us to get any correct idea about the exact route followed by
the people between Southern India and Bengal at the time of the
poet though any information with regard to it would have been
much welcome. The poet does not appear to have been much
eager either to describe and scrupulously follow the course
of that route. On the other hand, like other poets under similar
conditions, our poet also seems to have availed himself of this
opportunity to satisfy his love of poetic description and hence
we have here a detailed description of many of the noteworthy
and important places and objects of South India though all of
them may not lie on the exact route that may be supposed to
have usually been followed. Thus we find that the poet takes
ontemporary
I. Similar exaggerations are not rare even in
epigraphic records as in the Monghyr plate of Dev paladeva
where the king is represented as having been the ruler of the
whole world (Gaudalekhamala p. 38).
a most suitable abode for the heorine of his poem.* But we
are not sure if there is any reference here to a temporary and
not probably very successful incursion undertaken by the
king either independently or in the company of some prince
of the Chalukya dynasty, a member of which dynasty Laks-
mana's mother was.
Geographical information from the Pavanadūta :-
The great importance of the Pavanaduta like that of some
other dutakāvyas lies in the geographical information, afforded
in the present case by the description it gives of the route
from the Malaya hills to Vijayapura the capital of Lakṣmaṇasena
in Bengal.
It is true that from this description it is not possible for
us to get any correct idea about the exact route followed by
the people between Southern India and Bengal at the time of the
poet though any information with regard to it would have been
much welcome. The poet does not appear to have been much
eager either to describe and scrupulously follow the course
of that route. On the other hand, like other poets under similar
conditions, our poet also seems to have availed himself of this
opportunity to satisfy his love of poetic description and hence
we have here a detailed description of many of the noteworthy
and important places and objects of South India though all of
them may not lie on the exact route that may be supposed to
have usually been followed. Thus we find that the poet takes
ontemporary
I. Similar exaggerations are not rare even in
epigraphic records as in the Monghyr plate of Dev paladeva
where the king is represented as having been the ruler of the
whole world (Gaudalekhamala p. 38).