Jain Journal 2004 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 56

BOOK REVIEW
Abhinava-bharati Text: Restored edited by V.M. Kulkarni; Shresthi Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi, C/o Sharadaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre, Shahibaug, Ahmedabad300004, 2003, pp. xvi + 220, price Rs. 300.00.
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One of the serious and critical research productions of Professor V.M. Kulkarni is his latest publication, known as Abhinavabhārati Text Restored and other Articles published from Ahmedabad under the General Editorship of Jitendra B. Shah. The text contains fifteen articles of V.M. Kulkarni --- all of which are concerned on rhetorics and poetry. Of them again, the text of Abhinavabharati Restored occupies the most important position of the book. It has three appendices which also contain the criticism of some writers on rhetorics. Most of the articles, if not all, were published in different Journals from 1963 onwards till 2002. Each one is a gem and is a good specimen of serious research work.
Abhinava-bharati is a commentary on the Natya-sastra of Bharata by Abhinavagupta belonging to the 11th /12th centuries A.D. The commentary is very famous and occupies a unique position in the literary criticism of Sanskrit literature. This commentary is published in Gaekaward Oriental Series, Baroda, from 1927 onward by M. Ramakrishna Kavi. But unfortunately the edition as printed there is very corrupt and erroneous. V.M. Kulkarni has tried his best to restore the text on the basis of some quotations as found in Hemacandra's Kāvyānuṣāsana, Ramacandra and Guṇacandra's Natyadarpana and Ambāprasāda's Kalpalata-viveka. All these writers have borrowed several passages from the Abhinavabhārati of Abhinavagupta. V.M. Kulkarni on the basis of the passages quoted by these writers has restored some of corrupt texts of Abhinavabhārati. This will be reflected in his book at every step. The other articles of Kulkarni are similarly thought-provoking. It is quite in the fitness of things that the collection of these articles will be a treasure-house in the literary criticism of Sanskrit literature.
I hope this book of V.M. Kulkarni will act as a troch-bearer of future generation and will serve as a model of how to restore a corrupt text on the basis of external evidence. I believe that this work will be useful to scholars of Sanskrit literary criticism.
Satya Ranjan Banerjee