Indian Kavya Literature Vol. IV

by A.K. Warder

It is multi-volume series work. The main pupose of this work is literary criticism, evaluating a great tradition of literature and to present comprehensive study of sanskrit literature. So far 6 volumes have been published. Each volume presents literature itself in successive periods of its development. This fourth volume describes in more detail the extensive literature preserved from the 7th and 8th centuries. These centuries are relatively rich in extant movels, including those of Bana, Dandin, Kutuhala, Haribhadra and Uddyotana, from which we at last get a fairly full view of the scope of this genre in medieval India. The greatest Indian critics, writing in the 11th century, found the literature of these two centuries, and especially the plays of Harsa, Narayana, Matraraja and Bhavabhuti, of exceptional interest for such theories as those of the aesthetic development of emotions, and consequently provide us with very detailed analyses, here brought together for the first time. This suggests a distinctive character for the period here presented and a subtitle for the present volume. Historically it matches the rise of a new political system after the collapse of the Gupta Empire. The masterpieces of Matraraja, Kutuhala and Uddyotana, recently recovered from neglected manuscripts, are described in this volume, also the restored epic of Kumaradasa and the partly restored novel of Dandin. DR. WARDER is Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit in the University of Toronto. He is the author of 15 books and more than 30 articles on Indology, and editor of 7 more. He has spent several years in India exploring manuscript libbraries in every state in connection with his work on kavya.