Bhanudatta Misra was a

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

from the

Mithila Mithila may refer to: Places * Mithilā, a synonym for the ancient Videha state ** Mithilā (ancient city), the ancient capital city of Videha * Mithila (region), a cultural region (historical and contemporary), now divided between India and Nepa ...

region of India who has been dated to some time in the late 15th and early 16th century. Bhanudatta's works started to gain popularity, particularly in the early modern period when his compositions, the ''Rasamānjari'' and the ''Rasatarangini'' received numerous commentaries especially up till the 18th century. As per

Sheldon Pollock Sheldon I. Pollock (born 1948) is an American scholar of Sanskrit, the intellectual and literary history of India, and comparative intellectual history. He is the Arvind Raghunathan Professor of South Asian Studies at Columbia University. He was ...

; "no other Sanskrit poet exercised anything remotely approaching Bhanudatta's influence on the development of the Hindi literary tradition between 1600 and 1850.".

Life

As per Bhanudatta himself, he was born in the country of

Videha Videha ( Prākrit: ; Pāli: ; Sanskrit: ) was an ancient Indo-Aryan tribe of north-eastern Indian subcontinent whose existence is attested during the Iron Age. The population of Videha, the Vaidehas, were initially organised into a monarchy ...

corresponding to the

Mithila region Mithila (), also known as Tirhut, Tirabhukti and Mithilanchal, is a geographical and cultural region of the Indian subcontinent bounded by the Mahananda River in the east, the Ganges in the south, the Gandaki River in the west and by the foothil ...

of modern-day North

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

in India and belonged to the

Maithil Brahmin Maithil Brahmins are the Indo-Aryan Hindu Brahmin community originating from the Mithila region and original inhabitants of Southern Nepal and bordering regions of India that comprises Madhesh Province & some areas of Koshi Province in Nepal ...

community. He also states that his father was a poet named Ganeshvara. Speaking of his background in the

third person Third person, or third-person, may refer to: * Third person (grammar), a point of view (in English, ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', and ''they'') ** Illeism, the act of referring to oneself in the third person * Third-person narrative, a perspective in p ...

, he states: Other than this, Bhanudatta gives very little information about his life from his works which was typical of Sanskrit poets of the period. Many poets would also travel vast distances to secure royal patronage and many of Bhanudattas works were likely composed under the patronage of a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

rule in

Devagiri Daulatabad Fort, originally Deogiri Fort, is a historic fortified citadel located in Daulatabad village near Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. It was the capital of the Yadavas (9th century – 14th century CE), for a brief time the capital of ...

in modern-day

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

whom Bhanudatta refers to as a "King Nijama".

has connected this "Nijama" with

Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah I Malik Ahmad Nizam Shah () was the founder of the Nizam Shahi dynasty and the Ahmadnagar Sultanate. Ahmad was the son of the Nizam ul-Mulk Malik Hasan Bahri, a Hindu Brahmin from Beejanuggar (or Bijanagar) originally named Timapa who converted ...

of the

Ahmadnagar Sultanate The Ahmadnagar Sultanate was a medieval Marathi Muslim kingdom located in the northwestern Deccan, between the sultanates of Gujarat and Bijapur, ruled by the Nizam Shahi dynasty. It was established when Malik Ahmed, the Bahmani governor o ...

. The outcome of this was that Bhanudatta's works continued to be deeply studied in the

Deccan The Deccan is a plateau extending over an area of and occupies the majority of the Indian peninsula. It stretches from the Satpura and Vindhya Ranges in the north to the northern fringes of Tamil Nadu in the south. It is bound by the mount ...

region and in other neighbouring sultanates like that of

Golconda Golconda is a fortified citadel and ruined city located on the western outskirts of Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The fort was originally built by Kakatiya ruler Pratāparudra in the 11th century out of mud walls. It was ceded to the Bahmani ...

Influence

Bhanudatta's works made an impact on the emergent painting tradition of early modern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The Bouquet of Rasa was well received within the field of miniature paintings and was illustrated possibly as early as the 1600s in the region of

Mewar Mewar, also spelled as Mewad is a region in the south-central part of Rajasthan state of India. It includes the present-day districts of Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Pirawa Tehsil of Jhalawar District of Rajasth ...

. His poems have also been depicted in miniature paintings from the

, Chamba and Nurpur.

Works

The attributed works of Bhanudatta Misra are: * ''Alankaratilaka'' (Forehead Ornament of Figures) * ''Gitagauripatikavya'' * ''Kumarabhargaviyacampu'' * ''Rasamānjari'' (Bouquet of Rasa) * ''Rasatarangini'' (Rivers of Rasa)

References

{{reflist Writers of Mithila Hindu poets 15th-century Indian poets