"Rajasekhara must have lived not later than the end of the 8th or the beginning of the 9th century A.D. He appears, however, to be a native pf Maharashtra.... Rajasekhara is nothing, if not original. He thought that he was not bound to slavishly follow the practice of his predecessors in the field, and has, therefore, invented not only ideas, but a peculiar method of arranging incidents, so as to impart novelty to his works. He is undoubtedly a poet of great learning and much information. His chief merit, however, appears to be the powerful command he has over language - the varied vocabulary he can call to his aid. The Vīrarasa or heroic sentiment is undoubtedly his forte. he has shown a remarkable skill only second to Bhavabhūti's in adpting his words to the sentiment, and in not a few places he shows how well he recognized the importance of Pope's well-known canon, "The sound should seem an echo to the sense."
center>About the Author
Dr. Madhavi Kolhatkar, retired Professor in Sanskrit Dictionary Department, Deccan College, Pune, has Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Pune University and has working knowledge of German, Russian, Tibetan, and Japanese.
She has ten books and more than hundred published articles in English, Sanskrit and Marathi to her credit. Her research field is mainly the Brahmana texts, srauta ritual and mythology. She has put forth the hypothesis after the careful study of the myths that 1. The Sutramanī sacrifice has its origin basically in the rivalry between the brahmanas and the ksatriyas; 2. Laksmī is primarily an animal having the mark (laksman) of possession on it; 3. The etymology of Vamana is from the causative form of the root vam which is 'one, (i.e.an animal) evacuated"; 4. The word 'anasthi' does not mean 'without bones' but a phenomenon of pseudocysis or false pregnancy; 5. The close study of the word Avaksayaņa in the Satapathabrahmana denotes that it is the precursor of the pan-Indian rite 'Neerajanavidhi', etc.
She was invited for seminars and conferences in USA, Japan, Romania, China and Croatia and was awarded Mombusho scholarship for the year 1986-87. Again from July 2010 to June 2011 she was invited to participate in a joint project on Nispannayogavalī undertaken by Forbidden City Museum, China and the Ethnological Museum, Osaka, Japan.
She has given talks related to Sanskrit language and literature on All India Radio, Pune and also delivered public lectures.
The gargantuan plot of the Mahabharata involving numerous characters of div the gargansting shades has enticed many creative minds across the globe for diverseco Many have utilized the fabulous dramatic elements found in the epic to construct dramas, poems, and various artistic creations. Rajasekhara, a well. known Sanskrit and Prakrit literary personality of early medieval India was among such ingenious dramatists who wrote the drama Balabharata based on the epic Mahabharata. The drama is available to us in incomplete form, yet is of immense importance to the students of Sanskrit and Indian dramatics. Madhavi Kolhatkar has taken up and completed the work of translating Balabharata during the tenure of scholarship at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute under the Academic Development Programme supported by the Infosys foundation.
This book consists of the translation of the two extant acts and all necessary notes that provide more information to readers. The author has provided her views about the meanings of the original words wherever she had a different opinion. The book contains a chapter where the variant readings of the text are given with an explanation to why a particular reading is accepted. The text of the drama has been dealt with by the late V.S. Apte in 1886. Also, Gary Tubb has translated only the second act of Balabharata. Madhavi Kolhatkar has provided comments on the earlier works for the benefit of those who are interested in studying Rajasekhara's works in more detail. The book has an exhaustive list of words that have appeared in the drama.
Madhavi Kolhatkar has a long experience of working at the Deccan College in the gigantic project of an encyclopaedic dictionary of Sanskrit based on historical principles. Due to the rigour that she has learnt during her long career as an editor at the Deccan College, the present book has become an important source material of Sanskrit literature in general and Rajasekhara's works in particular.
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