Chapter 17.5 - Post-Bana Prose writers

The post-Bana Sanskrit prose writers have generally tended to follow Bana in their style of writing which had touched such an appreciative chord in them that it became a model for them which they strove hard to approximate in their works . So much fascinated were they by it-it is not only just they but even the literary critics-that they proclaimed prose; evidently the highly ornate and complicated prose; as the touchstone of poetry: gadyam kavinam nikasam vadanti. In the post-Bana period the more notable prose writers are Dhanapala of 1006 A.D. who wrote the Tilakamanjari, which is noteworthy for its graphic descriptions of iconography, sculpture and other arts and crafts, Vadiyasimha, the author of the Gadyacintamani with its theme akin to that of the Kadambari and Vamanabhattabana, the author of the Vemabhupalacarita which is a replica in a sense of the Harsacarita of Bana. Coming to the modern period one of the most noteworthy of the Sanskrit prose writers is Ambikadatta Vyasa, 1858-1900, whose Sivarajavijaya has won full plaudits from lovers of Sanskrit literature.