Page:Dasarupa (Haas 1912).djvu/26

xxii rāja of the Paramāra dynasty of Mālava. He came to the throne in 974 A. D., succeeding his father Sīyaka, and held sway until about 995, when he was defeated, taken captive, and executed by the neighboring Cālukya king Tailapa II. (or Taila), whom he had, according to the author Merutuṅga, conquered in six previous campaigns.

Muñja was not only an intrepid warrior, but a poet and patron of letters as well. Padmagupta, the author of the Navasāhasāṅkacarita, twice calls the king a ‘friend of poets’ and states that it was because of royal favor that he, too, was able to ‘wander along the path trod by the master-poets.’ The lexicographer Halāyudha also, in commenting on the metrical treatise of Piṅgala, includes stanzas in praise of Muñja’s liberality. Furthermore