Mayūra

Mayura was a 7th century Sanskrit poet and is best known for his Sūryaśataka (SS) - a hundred verses in the sragdharā metre extolling the Sun deity (Sūrya).

The Avantisundarikathā of Daṇḍin (8th c. CE), Rajasekhara’s Kāvyamīmāṁsā (9th c. CE), ‘Parimala’ Padmagupta’s Navasāhasāṅkacarita (ca. 10th c. CE) and Merutunga’s Prabandhacintāmaṇi (14th c. CE) all speak of Bana and Mayura as being contemporaries (and/or rivals). Merutunga’s Prabandhacintāmaṇi (PC) says that Mayura is Bana’s brother in law, and recounts the legend about Mayura turning into a leper by his sister’s curse. Further, the PC has it that Mayura wrote the SS in praise of the Sun god to be cured of his leprosy.

Besdie the SS, Mayura wrote the so-called ‘Mayūrāṣṭaka', and several standalone quatrains (muktaka) attributed to Mayura are found in anthologies such as Sridharadasa’s Saduktikarṇāmṛta (13th c CE) and Vallabhadeva’s Subhāṣitāvali (ca. 15th c. CE).

Mayura( along with Bana) is often named in the Telugu and Kannada kāvyas as an ancient śaiva poet. His SS was widely read and circulated in the Sanskrit cosmopolis and may be identified as the archetype of the sragdharā-stora and śataka genres.