Nītivākyāmṛta

The anonymous commentator on the Nītivākyāmṛta says that Somadeva wrote it for a king Mahendrapāla. It would have to be Mahendrapāla II of Kannauj (mentioned in an inscription of Partapgarh of 946), but scholars are not certain about the attribution. Botto, following Raghavan, thinks that it is perfectly likely, given the political conditions of the time, that a poet could have moved from the court of the Pratihāras in Kannauj to the court of the Vēmulavāḍa Cāḷukyas; Handiqui thinks that there is no reason to believe that Somadeva ever lived in Kannauj.