This work contains descriptions of various subjects and situations. This work provides valuable information about the life and culture of medieval India.[8] The text is divided into seven Kallolas (waves): Nagara Varṇana, Nāyikā Varṇana, Asthāna Varṇana, Ṛtu Varṇana, Prayāṇa Varṇana, Bhaṭṭādi Varṇana and Śmaśāna Varṇana. An incomplete list of 84 Siddhas is found in the text, which consists only 76 names. A manuscript of this text is preserved in the Asiatic Society, Kolkata[9][10]
The word Abahattha was used for the very first time in this encyclopedic work.[11] Later the Maithili poet Vidyapati wrote his poem Kīrttilatā in Abahatta.[12]
Author
Varṇa Ratnākara was written by Jyotirīśvara Ṭhākura, also spelled Jyotirishwar Thakur. Thakur was born in a Brahmin family. He was son of Rāmeśvara and grandson of Dhīreśvara. He was the court poet of King Harisimhadeva of Karnata dynasty of Mithila.
References
^ abJyotiśvara. (1998). Varṇa-ratnākara of Jyotiriśvara of Kaviśekharācārya. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. pp. ix. ISBN81-260-0439-8. OCLC40268712.
^Mukherjee, Sujit. (1998). A dictionary of Indian literature. Hyderabad: Orient Longman. p. 153. ISBN81-250-1453-5. OCLC42718918.
^Chatterji, Suniti Kumar (1966). The People, Language, and Culture of Orissa. Orissa Sahitya Akademi. p. 19.
^Sharma, R.K. "International Sanskrit Conference, New Delhi, March 26th-31st, 1972, Volume 2, Part 1". The Ministry, 1972. 2: 141.
^Mukherjee, Ramkrishna (26 February 2019). Understanding social dynamics in South Asia : Essays in memory of Ramkrishna Mukherjee. Singapore. p. 205. ISBN978-981-13-0387-6. OCLC1088722592.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Majumdar, Ramesh Chandra; Pusalker, A. D.; Majumdar, A. K., eds. (1960). The History and Culture of the Indian People. Vol. VI: The Delhi Sultanate. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. p. 515. The Varṇa Ratnākara of Jyotirīśvara Ṭhākura ... was written about 1325. This is a work of set descriptions of various subjects and situations, to supply ready-made cliché passages to story-tellers ... [it] is important, not only because it gives us specimens of pure Maithilī prose ... but also because it is a store-house of information, conveyed through words, about the life and culture of early Medieval India in all their aspects.
^Jyotiśvara. (1998). Varṇa-ratnākara of Jyotiriśvara of Kaviśekharācārya. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. p. 126. ISBN81-260-0439-8. OCLC40268712.
^Jha, Pankaj (2019). A political history of literature : Vidyapati and the fifteenth century (First ed.). New Delhi. pp. 4–7. ISBN978-0-19-948955-8. OCLC1083625313.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
