Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa Mṛgarājalakśman, also known as Nishānārāyana, was a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

scholar and writer who belonged to the ''Pancharatra'' Rarhi branch of ''

Sandilya Shandilya (IAST: Śāṇḍilya) is a Brahmin gotra, named after the Rishi Shandilya, specifying that individuals of the gotra have Shandilya as one of their patrilineal ancestors. Shandilya Rishi and was the progenitor of the Śāṇḍilya go ...

'' family of

Brahmins Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru o ...

. He lived before 800 A.D. for he is cited by Vāmana (iv.3.28) in about 800 A.D. and by Ānandavardhana who refers to him more than once. He is believed to have been summoned from Kanyakubja (

Kannauj Kannauj ( Hindustani pronunciation: ənːɔːd͡ʒ is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is a corrupted form of the class ...

) to

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

by King Ādisūra, who ruled before the

Pala dynasty The Pāla Empire (r. 750-1161 CE) was an imperial power during the post-classical period in the Indian subcontinent, which originated in the region of Bengal. It is named after its ruling dynasty, whose rulers bore names ending with the suffi ...

came to power in the middle of the eighth century, and who in 671 A.D. was a contemporary of Ādityasena, son of Madhavagupta, who ruled Kanyakubja. Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa, who is believed to have converted to

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

, was a disciple of

Dharmakirti Dharmakīrti (fl. c. 6th or 7th century; Tibetan: ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་; Wylie: ''chos kyi grags pa''), was an influential Indian Buddhist philosopher who worked at Nālandā.Tom Tillemans (2011)Dharmakirti Stanford ...

with whom he co-authored ''Rupavatara''. Dandin in his ''Avantisundarikatha'' refers to Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa as author of three books but who is more widely known as the author of ''Venisamhara'' that dramatizes in six Acts some incidents from the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the ''Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the Kuruk ...

. The construction of this drama may be bad but characterization is vigorous; many violent situations are described in long narrative digressions in poetic but undramatic style, yet there are graces of poetry, power of crude and furious descriptions, of impressive sonorous diction, of vivid depiction of detached scenes and situations, and of vigorous characterization. The

Tagore family The Tagore family (also spelled as ''Thakur''), with over three hundred years of history,Deb, Chitra, pp 64–65. has been one of the leading families of Calcutta, India, and is regarded as one of the key influencers during the Bengali Renaiss ...

and the Nadia Raj family claims their descent from Bhaṭṭa Nārāyaṇa.

References

{{authority control Hindu poets Sanskrit dramatists and playwrights Indian male poets 7th-century Indian poets Sanskrit poets

See also

References