My greatest handicap in writing this monograph has been the paucity of manuscript material to which circumstance has allowed me access. Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to see more than a tiny Number of the hundreds of manuscripts that most probably contain material to contribute to our knowledge of the Saiva canon and, indeed, the Kubjika cult. I can only hope that fate will be kinder to me in the future than it has been in the past and allow me access to the manuscripts in Nepal which for many years now I have dearly to study.
I wish to acknowledge my debt of gratitude to a number of people who have helped and inspired me during more than fifteen years of study in India and in Oxford, where I did the privilege of working for my doctorate. One of the first who comes to mind is Mr. G.S. Sanderson, whom I consider not only a fine scholar but also a friend. I would also like to express my gratitude to Professor R. Gombrich, who was my supervisor during my years at Oxford and is one of the most sincere people I know. I cannot be grateful enough to Professor Vrajavallabha Dvivedi, former head of the Yogatantra Department of Sampurnananda Sanskrit University. In our many conversations in Hindi and Sanskrit, he has been an inspiring guide to several areas of Tantrasastra. Dr. B.P. Tripathi, head of the Research Department of the same University, has also helped me a great deal, not so much in the field of Tantric studies, but in Sanskrit grammar. His profound knowledge of Panini ad the Sanskrit language has inspired me to take delight in the Sanskrit itself, not just as a tool to read texts but as a language to speak and write for its own sake.
I should acknowledge the many suggestions made by Dr. Goudriaan, who is at present at the University of Utrecht, and Dr. N. Rastogi at Lucknow University. They were kind enough to read this monograph carefully and to bring to my attention a number of important points that have contributed concretely to the final form of this work. I should also thank Dr. Harvey Alper, the editor of the SUNY series of studies in Kashmiri Saivism, for having chosen to include my work in the series and for his sustained encouragement throughout the long process of editing and publication.
Finally-and above all-I acknowledge my parents' contribution: their support in every way has been constant and unremitting; the, like my wife, have always had faith even when it failed me.
Form the Jacket
This book is an attempt at resolving and important tangle, that of the utility of Figurative Poetry in Sanskrit Literature. In the shape of Sabdacitra and Ubhayacitra, connoting verbal juggleries and intellectual riddles this literature amuses vast shades of people, even today. Arthacitra is the real imagist poetry. Even old Sanskrit rhetoricians, Ananda, Abhinava and Panditaraja had a flash of its imagist appeal.
The book has seven chapters. Chapter I is introductory and re-defines poetry and assesses the place of figurative poetry in that context. Chapter II deal with the historicity of different divisions and subdivisions of this branch of poetry as also with some new concepts either co-ordinate with them or contributory to their development. Chapters III and IV discuss the various divisions of Sabdacitra and Ubhayacitra with apt illustrations from copious sources. Chapters V and VI deal with Arthacitra and the development of Citrakavya right from the Vedic age. Chapter VII affirms and establishes the conviction of the concept treated in the previous chapters.
The book is documented with Preface, Abbreviations, Appendices, Bibliography and Index.
Back of the Book
Vol I present Indian Literary Criticism including the aesthetic theories about the nature of enjoyment of literature, the techniques of dramaturgy and poetics, the nature of the literary genres and a sketch of the milieu of the writers and critics. Vol. II deals with the formation of the tradition known as kavya, and the early classical models created by Valmiki, Gunadhya, Asvaghosa Satavahana and others. Vol. III presents the celebrated writers like Sudraka, Visnusarman, Kalidasa, Pravarasena, Amaruka, Bharavi, Subandhu and Visakhadatta, with a new analysis and appreciation of their poetry. Recently discovered mss, are utilised to resurrect writers like Sarvasena, Matrgupta, Mentha etc, touching briefly the history of the period. Vol. IV describes in more detail the extensive literature preserved from the 7th and 8th centuries. It analyses the extant novels of famous writers such as Bana, Dandin, Kutuhala, Haribhadra and Uddyotana. The plays of Harsa, Narayana, and Bhavabhuti are also assessed critically. Vol. V delineates in detail the play, dramas, legends, commentaries, dramatic criticism and techniques of the stage pertaining to the period coyering 9th and 10th centuries from Saktibhadra to Dhanapala. Vol. VI treats of the Indian Literature produced in the 11th century C.E. which is dominated by fiction including short and long stories, novels and legends in prose as well as poetry.
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