Vidyakara

Who was Vidyakara?

Vidyakara was a Buddhist scholar and poetry anthologist, noted for the Sanskrit poetry compilation Subhashitaratnakosha. Some consider it to be the "most celebrated" anthology of Sanskrit verse Most of the verses, where authorship is noted, range over the two centuries prior to compilation, and hence it may be thought of as a compilation of "modern verse" for the period.

About Vidyakara himself, very little is known. D. D. Kosambi has argued compellingly for Vidyakara having been a senior monk at the Jagaddala Vihara monastery in North Bengal, based on evidence which includes markings on the palm-leaf manuscript of an earlier edition of the work, claimed to be Vidyakara's original, of what may have been shelfmarks from the library in Jagaddala.