One of the well-known arts of poetics used to be Ashu-kavitA: in which poets complete impromtu, a poem of some other poet, and should they be rivals then usually in a way to subvert the original meaning of the first poet. There are several examples of it, here is a funny one related to bhoja:
Once bhoja is taking a morning stroll in the royal garden with his court poet (named kAlidAsa - but not to be confused with the prince of saMskR^ita literature), when another poet named maNibhadra, a visiting scholar from a neighbouring kingdom, is announced and allowed to join them. As per the royal etiquettes kAlidAsa should have been walking by the king's left side, but since they were more like friends he was not following this manner. The visiting poet seized the opportunity to show his rival down, and quickly taking to bhojadeva's left he started saying this poem to subtly point to the folly of the king's favourite poet...
Thre first three steps:
gR^ihyAtyeSha ripOH shiraH pratijavaM karShatyasau vAjinaM
dhR^itvA charmadhanuH prayAti satataM saMgrAmabhUmAvapi
dyUtaM chauryamadhamathastriyaM cha shapathaM jAnAti nAyaM karo
roughly:
This, the LEFT, clamps down the heads of the enemies; draws the running horses to halt; weilds armour and the mighty bow at the field. But this the LEFT hand has never known to gamble or theive, nor embracing others' wives, and rising in (false) oaths, this it has never learnt...
but before the poet can complete the last line, kAlidAsa by now knowing the intent of the visiting rival, jumped in to complete the poem with this line:
dAnAnudyatatAM vilokya vidhinA shauchAdhikArI kR^itaH
meaning:
being all that good, still, finding this LEFT unwilling to rise in donations, bramhA appointed it in the service of cleaning (the rear)...
Thereby also subtly suggesting that this visitor walking on the left is good for nothing, certainly deserves no grants. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Once bhoja is taking a morning stroll in the royal garden with his court poet (named kAlidAsa - but not to be confused with the prince of saMskR^ita literature), when another poet named maNibhadra, a visiting scholar from a neighbouring kingdom, is announced and allowed to join them. As per the royal etiquettes kAlidAsa should have been walking by the king's left side, but since they were more like friends he was not following this manner. The visiting poet seized the opportunity to show his rival down, and quickly taking to bhojadeva's left he started saying this poem to subtly point to the folly of the king's favourite poet...
Thre first three steps:
gR^ihyAtyeSha ripOH shiraH pratijavaM karShatyasau vAjinaM
dhR^itvA charmadhanuH prayAti satataM saMgrAmabhUmAvapi
dyUtaM chauryamadhamathastriyaM cha shapathaM jAnAti nAyaM karo
roughly:
This, the LEFT, clamps down the heads of the enemies; draws the running horses to halt; weilds armour and the mighty bow at the field. But this the LEFT hand has never known to gamble or theive, nor embracing others' wives, and rising in (false) oaths, this it has never learnt...
but before the poet can complete the last line, kAlidAsa by now knowing the intent of the visiting rival, jumped in to complete the poem with this line:
dAnAnudyatatAM vilokya vidhinA shauchAdhikArI kR^itaH
meaning:
being all that good, still, finding this LEFT unwilling to rise in donations, bramhA appointed it in the service of cleaning (the rear)...
Thereby also subtly suggesting that this visitor walking on the left is good for nothing, certainly deserves no grants. <!--emo&
--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->