Page:Biographical Sketches of Dekkan Poets.djvu/18

xi It has been asserted that Bhoja Raja used to pay one lac of money for every syllable of a verse that was written on him, and this verse is cited as a proof:

"Laksham Laksham Punor Laksham Janudagdha Kaviswar.

Pay one lac, another lack, and one lac more to Janudagdha the poet."

The sum of one lac for every syllable is such an instance of liberality, as can no where be found recorded in history, and is too extravagant to deserve credit; but the learned have explained the matter by asserting that the lacs that were given by Bhoja Raja, to the poets, were lacs of shells, as a considerable part of the revenue of his kingdom was paid in shells. It is also averred that any one on beholding the countenance of the above-named monarch, immediately obtained the gift of poetry; the true meaning of which probably is, that the king was so great an encourager of learning that his pa-