Sharan

Sharan a Sanskrit poet of the 12th century AD, possibly the same person as Saran Datta or Chirantana Saran, perhaps identical with Saran Dev, author of the Durghatavrtti, a grammatical work on anomalous literary uses. The poet jaydev mentions him among his contemporaries and describes him as having become famous because of his swiftness in difficult versification. Tradition has it that Saran along with Govardhan, Jaydev, Umapatidhar and Kaviraj came to be known as the five gems at the court of laksmanasena. No major work of Saran is extant, but he is quoted in the Saduktikarnamrta of Shridhar Das, a governor under Laksmanasena and in the padavali of Rupa Goswami. [Pratap Bandyopadhyay]