Previous Year Question

A. Trivikrama Bhatta — Nalachampu (3): Nalachampu is one of the early and celebrated examples of Sanskrit Champu literature. It was composed by Trivikrama Bhatta. A characteristic feature of Champu literature is the combined use of prose and verse. Nalachampu is based on the famous story of Nala and Damayanti from the Mahabharata.

Nalachampu is also known as Damayantikatha. The surviving work consists of seven chapters and is counted among the early developed examples of Sanskrit Champu literature.

B. Somadeva — Kathasaritsagara (4): The Kathasaritsagara was composed in Sanskrit by the 11th-century Kashmiri poet Somadeva. Its title means the “Ocean of the Rivers of Stories.”

Somadeva based his work on the now-lost Brihatkatha of Gunadhya. The original Brihatkatha is traditionally believed to have been composed in the Paishachi language. The main narrative of the Kathasaritsagara concerns Naravahanadatta, but it incorporates a very large number of subsidiary tales, folk stories and adventure narratives.

C. Jayadeva — Gita Govinda (1): The Gita Govinda is a celebrated Sanskrit work of the 12th-century poet Jayadeva. Its principal theme is the love, separation and reunion of Radha and Krishna.

The Gita Govinda is divided into 12 cantos and 24 prabandhas. The structure of its songs gave particular prominence to the Ashtapadi tradition. The work exercised a wide influence on Indian music, dance, devotional traditions and painting.

D. Kshemendra — Brihatkathamanjari (2): The 11th-century Kashmiri poet Kshemendra composed the Brihatkathamanjari. It is also a Sanskrit rendering of the ancient Brihatkatha of Gunadhya.

Thus, Somadeva's Kathasaritsagara and Kshemendra's Brihatkathamanjari are both connected with the same ancient narrative tradition—the Brihatkatha of Gunadhya—but they are distinct Sanskrit works.