ABSTRACT
A dissonant and unsettling text like Hāsyārṇava ought to have had better visibility. Yet, very little is known about either its literary history or its author. We know that it was composed by a poet called Jagadēśvara Bhaṭṭāchārya. The text tells us that he was from an impeccable lineage; whether it was caste lineage or poetic lineage, we do not know. What about the text itself? It is also normal for the date or year of composition of many ancient or medieval texts to be the subject of intense speculation and conjecture. Hāsyārṇava falls into this category.
