Rajasekhara was a popular Sanskrit poet and playwright. He came of Brahman lineage in the ninth-tenth century. His father was a high priest and his grandfather, Akalajalada was a great poet. They appear to have originated from Maharashtra. He married Avantisundari, an accomplished Kshatriya princess. She was the `crest jewel of the Chauhana family.` He travelled widely, his familiarity with south India being particularly remarkable. In the prologues to his dramas, Rajasekhara says that he was the spiritual teacher of King Mahendrapala and patronized by Mahendrapala`s son and heir, Mahipala. In his play Viddhasalabhanjika or `The Resembling Image`, he refers to Yuvarajadeva, identified with a contemporary Kalachuri ruler, Keyuravarsha Yuvarajadeva, who had his capital at Tripuri, near modern Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.

Out of four plays Rajasekhara`s, Baiaramayana i.e. `The Little Ramayana` presents the entire story of the Ramayana. The incomplete Balabharata i.e. `The Little Bharata or Prapanca Pandava or `The Five Pandavas` is based on the Mahabharata and shows Draupadi`s marriage, the Pandavas` loss of their kingdom, the public insult to Draupadi, and the Pandavas` departure to the forest.

Viddhasalabhanjika is a four-act natika. The parts can be mentioned as Chandravarman, king of Lata, has no son and passes off his daughter as a boy, and sending her to the Vidyadhara queen in Kerala. This leads to a secret marriage between her and the Vidyadhara king. Meanwhile, a messenger brings the happy news of the birth of a son to Chandravarman. The fourth work, Karpuramanjari i.e. `Camphor Blossoms` is a sattaka. This is a variety of drama written entirely in Prakrit in four acts. It tells the story, full of vicissitudes, of love between king Chandrapala and a princess of Kuntala. His queen`s jealousy, the consequent impediments, the lovers` secret meetings, and finally their marriage, follow a pattern borrowed from older court comedies.

Rajasekhara`s chief theatrical contribution lies in having written a new genre of play, the sattaka. In this he integrated the spectacular elements of his day, such as magic performances and acrobatics. Both his natika and the sattaka show the evolution of Sanskrit theatre practice in which, with the gradual emergence of the new dramatic forms known as uparupakas, a predominant role was assigned to music and dance. At the same time, his two natakas based on the epics display his capability of composing in forms inherited from tradition. He also authored an important text, Kavyamimamsa i.e. `Treatise on Poetry` of literary criticism and theory.