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ABOUT THE VOLUME
Anandavardhana is the firstof the Sanskrit writers on Poetics to cite as examples in his epoch-making work, Dhvanyaloka, Prakrit verses to explain divani, alamkara, bhāva. rasa, etc. This tradition was followed by later literary thinkers and the unique distiaction of citing over two thousand Prakrit and Apabbraṁsa passages goes to Bhoja, the author of Srrigara - Prakasa and Sarasvatikanthabharana. In a majority of the texts on Poetics the Prakrit and Apabhramsa passages are defectively edited. A critical edition of these passages, a large majority of which has been the despair of scholars, was a longfelt need. This volume makes a determined attempt to fulfil it. An earnest attempt is made here to present these passages in their correct form in as many cases as possible by tracing them to their sources, or by referring to other works on Poetics, Prosody or Giammar, wherever they are cited. In some cases where the sources are lost, they have been tentatively restored keeping in view the context, the metre and parallel ideas met with in Sanskrit and Prakrit literature. Still some others have been only partially restored and a considerable number of them, which have been the editor's despair are left as they are, with a hope that with fresh material they could be restored.
This volume presents these Prakrit and Apabhramsa passages, along with their Sanskrit Cchåyå from twenty works on Sanskrit Poetics (and, in many cases, their Sanskrit commentaries) in twenty separate chapters. These works include standard text-books on Poetics and a few less known ones too. ABOUT THE EDITOR
Dr. V. M. Kulkarni, formerly Director, B. L. Institute of Indolgy, Patan (North Gujarat), Professor of Sanskrit and Prakrit (Maharashtra Educational Service, Class I) and Director of Languages Maharashtra State, Bombay has taught Sanskrit and Prakrit Literature, Sanskrit Poetics and Aesthetics for several years. Besides contributing critcal articles and notes to Encyclopaedias in English and Marathi he has published about a hundred papers, review articles and reviews in various Research Journals of repute.
