Ratnākara () was a Sanskrit poet in premodern India. His magnum opus, the Haravijaya, containing 4,351 verses, is the longest extant mahākāvya. His work has been praised in many Sanskrit anthologies and works on rhetorics.
Life Very little is known about Ratnākara's life. He is referred to as a dependent of Bālabṛhaspati—generally assumed to be an epithet of Cippaṭajayāpīḍa—in the colophons of the Haravijaya'''s cantos. In the praśasti of the Haravijaya he speaks of himself as the son of Amṛtabhānu, a descendant of Durgadatta from Gangāhrada in the Himalayas. Kalhaṇa's Rājataraṅgiṇī lists him as one of the poets active at the court of Avantivarman ().
Works Haravijaya
The Haravijaya, described as Ratnākara's magnum opus, is the longest extant Sanskrit mahākāvya, containing a total of 4,351 verses in fifty sargas (cantos). The poem narrates Śiva's victory over Andhaka and also describes Śiva's iconographic features and gives an exposition of Śaiva philosophy. Peter Pasedach lists three commentaries on the poem: Viṣamapadoddyotā by Alaka, Laghupañcikā by Ratnakaṇṭha, and Haravijayasāravivaraṇa by Utpala. An edition of the work was published in 1890, prepared by Pandit Durgaprasad and Kasinath Pandurang Parab for the Kāvyamālā series. Another edition of the text was prepared by Dr. Goparaju Rama for the Ganganatha Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapitha Text Series and published in two volumes from 1982.
Vakroktipañcāśikā
The Vakroktipañcāśikā, possibly Ratnākara's only other preserved work, contains fifty verses of dialogue between Śiva and Pārvatī, employing the device of vakrokti ("verbal distortion"); Yigal Bronner and Lawrence McCrea argue that Ratnākara may have invented this poetic device.: "It seems evident, then, that vakrokti suddenly gained prominence through Ratnākara's work. Indeed, it is worth entertaining the possibility that Ratnākara is not only the most celebrated vakrokti-poet, but also the inventor of the device. The date of both putatively earlier examples is open to question. True, it is widely accepted that the Avantivarman named as a patron in some manuscripts of Viśākhadatta's play – whose benedictory distortive-talk verse was quoted above – is a late sixth-century king of Kanauj. Nevertheless, the fact that vakrokti first gains notice precisely at the court of the far more famous Avantivarman of Kashmir could indicate that he, in fact, is the patron named in the Mudrārākṣasa. And, as already noted, the ascription of the above septet to Mayūra derives only from the late anthology Subhāṣitāvali; such ascriptions are often unreliable. To summarize, while the data are inconclusive, it is at least possible that Ratnākara was the first to compose vakrokti verse and also the one who gave the device its name." Vallabhadeva has commented upon the work. An edition of the Vakroktipañcāśikā, by Durgaprasad and Parab, including Vallabhadeva's commentary, was published in Number 1 of the Kāvyamālā Anthology series in 1886.
Other works The Ratnākarapurāṇa, attributed to Ratnākara, is a now-lost chronicle of the kings of Kashmir, covering two "gaps" in Kalhaṇa's Rājataraṅginī. The Dhvanigāthāpañcikā, dealing with Prakrit verses in Ānandavardhana's Dhvanyāloka, is sometimes attributed to Ratnākara. The identity of this work's author with the author of Haravijaya is "practically impossible", as it appears to be an abridged version of the relevant sections of the Locana of Abhinavagupta, who lived after the author of the Haravijaya.
Legacy Ratnākara's work has been praised in many Sanskrit anthologies and works on rhetorics.: "Ratnākara and his work found mention and praise in Sanskrit anthologies and works of alaṃkāraśāstra. [...] See S. K. , Appendix II for a comprehensive list." The Haravijaya'' is also held in high esteem by modern Indian Sanskrit scholars. Rājaśekhara complimented Ratnākara with the following verse:
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