to have flourished about the 18th century. There are no details in the inscription to prove the identity of the two Manva Bhupas. Amrtanandayogin gives verses as illustrations which belong to Dhanika and certain portions of the work dealing with Dramaturgy are identical with Dasarupaka. So he may be placed after Dhauika, Some of his examples are the same as those found in the Kavyaprakasa of the 12th century. It view of the above, Amrtanandayogin may be assigned to 13th century. The name Amrtananda is familiar and is found in other books. There are two others by the same name one, the author of the commentary Yogmihrdayadipa , on Yogimhrdaya a Tantric Text, and the other , the author of Sattrimsat Tatva- Sandoha, a philosophical work. Neither of these has mentioned the Alankara Sangraha or Manva Bhupa for identification. Hence our author Amrtānandayogin may be different from them.
Amrtānandayogin appears to be an Andhra. At the end of each chapter of the text, a verse is added, specially composed in praise of the dedicatee Manva Bhupa. This practice is mostly observed by the poets of Andhradesa in their works. And there are a few texts in Sanskrit such as Prataparudriya which are also by the Andhras.
Our author Amrtānandayogin has stated in the introduc- tory verses that he composed this work at the instance of Manva Bnupa, a devotee of Siva. In some palm leaf manu scripts Manva is said to be जिनपादाब्जषट्पदः, and in others as शिवपादारुञ्जषट्पदः. So some hold that he was a Jain according to the previous reading. Most of the texts have the latter reading. It is stated that king Manva requested the scholar Amrtānandayogin to furnish the world with a complete work, comprising all-the-topics of Rhetoric for the benefit of scholars . Accordingly Amrtanandayogin gathered the
