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FOREWORD
I have great pleasure in associating myself with the publication of Jayantikā a prose romance composed by Sri Jaggu Vakula Bhushana by way of this foreword expressing my appreciation as well as admiration not only for this work but for the entire literary output of this unparalleled contemporary Sanskrit poet of the 20th century.
Earlier I had the privilege of writing a brief foreword to his Mahakavya Adbhutadutam. I also had the pleasure of delivering a special lecture at Shantiniketan University on the works of this poet, and presenting a paper on this poet in the Seminar on the 20th Century Sanskrit Literature organised at Bharatiya Vidyabhavan's College, Andheri, Bombay. This paper is published in Bharatiya Vidya. There were a few other occasions on which also I talked on the works of this poet. I never miss an opportunity to express my appreciation and admiration for the contribution of this poet to the field of Creative Sanskrit Literature of this Century. He is a distinguished poet who kept the tradition of Sanskrit poetry continued in the 20th Century with the same grandeur and depth with which it flourished in earlier centuries. The texture of the style and language of this poet cannot be easily separated from that of the classics of the early centuries.
The present work Jayantikā is a prose romance. The structure of the Story is modelled on Kadambari of Bāna. The style is aslo similar to it. The hero and the heroine assume two births viz., Chāruvaktra and Saugandhini, (B-12p)
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