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 PREFACE The Vairagya-Satakam is one of the three series of hundred verses which have come down to us under the title of Subhasita-trishati (lit. 'The happily worded three centuries' ) and associated the name of the poet Bhartrihari. In some manuscripts, these verses exceed the number implied in the above name, but we have followed the authority of an edition published by the nirnaya-sagar Press of Bombay, which maintains the exact original number.

Tradition attributes the authorship of these verses to Bhartrihari, the elder brother of the most renowned King Vikramaditya of Ujjain. Controversy has not yet settled the point as to which Vikramaditya was the brother of the poet and when exactly did he reign at Ujjaini.

The fact, it seems, that Bhartrhari belonged to a royal family and renounced the world later on in life to become a Yogi, forms the most reliable nucleus round which growing, and sometimes conflicting, traditions have continued to gather. A cave is still pointed out near Ujjain, bearing his name, where Bhartrhari is said to have