Bhoja Quotes

“When ideation on the intricacies and substance of creativity has been incubated for millennia, it is bound to find reflection in the pursuit of the aesthetic ideal. Kings aspired to be seen as cultured because that was expected of them by the people at large. Royal patronage reinforced popular aspirations among the populace for cultural knowledge, and provided institutional venues for their aesthetic fulfilment and enjoyment. Thus, a few centuries after the Gupta age, we have the remarkable example of Raja Bhoja (c. 1010–1055 CE), who ruled over an extensive kingdom in the Malwa region, with his capital at Dhara, near present-day Bhopal. Although his conquests were not insignificant, Bhoja is best remembered as a patron of the arts, literature and the sciences. As a scholar-king, he was the role model of later Hindu monarchs like Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara dynasty, who chose to call himself ‘Abhinava Bhoja’, the new or modern Bhoja. Under Bhoja, his capital Dhara became a renowned intellectual centre. It is said that in his kingdom even humble weavers could compose metrical Sanskrit kavyas. Bhoja wrote as many as eighty-four books on subjects as diverse as astrology, lexicography, Sanskrit grammar, poetics, dramaturgy and a commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Shastras. He was also a great poet himself—the work Shringara Prakash is one of his notable works—and a well-known musician.”
― Pavan K. Varma, The Great Hindu Civilisation: Achievement, Neglect, Bias and the Way Forward