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81
 
nothing but unsatisfied desire, pleasure frankly expressed as prerogative of
the rich, forming, like so much of the rest, literature of escape. Good
fortune alone can relieve this kind of suffering if patronage of the insolent
rich be not available. The renunciation is, therefore, a hankering to be realized
in the vague future, with growing disgust. The popularity of these lines
derives from the growth of a miserable class which was in this anomalous
position of possessing knowledge of Sanskrit, but no certainty of employment.
 
INTRODUCTION
 
One further proof of this contention may be seen in the remarkable
fact that, in spite of the extraordinary variation from version to version, the
total impression produced by any of them is about the same. A certain type of
stanza came to be attracted to the collection. On the other hand, the seeds
must necessarily have been present in the original collection to permit
such growth. As noted earlier, none of the heavy Vedanta survives, but
the mangalūcarana 1 seems to be quite genuine, along with 185, so that
a Śaiva tendency [slight, because of 20] was present for later intensification.
The latter of these two also shows the leaning towards renunciation in
a safely distant future.
 
There is nothing to prove that the poet was other than what he
seems to have been, a hungry Brahmin in distress [152]. The most
convincing figures of speech are Brahmanical, while control of the medium,
ability to twist syntax and grammar at will, compression, and power
show a mastery that can only be acquired by long practice in Sanskrit.
No king who had renounced would have advised his soul to renounce if
it could not taste the pleas ares of royalty [183]. Nos. 163 and 166 could
only have been written by one proud of being nothing but a poet, conscious of
the immortality of his calling as expressed in 55. In expressing lack of
trust in kings, 60° utilizes a completely Brahmanical metaphor; only a
Brahmin would speak of begging, even after renunciation, by preference
from the pious fire-sacrificing twice-born, as in 179.
 
For all that, we still do not know who he was. The life he led
could not have been happy, though posterity has compensated him by
posthumous glory as steadily inflated as his text.
 
11 भ. सु.
 
करकृतमपराधं क्षन्तुमर्हन्तु सन्तः ।