Jankiharana of Kumaradasa: A Critically Study (Cantos. 16-20)

Janakiharana of Kumaradasa is the first Sanskrit Mahakavya, so far as the

extant literature goes, to deal solely with the whole of the

Ramayana-story. Its further interest is that it was produced in Ceylon,

showing thereby the wider world over which Sanskrit had its sway.

After manuscripts of the full text of the poem in twenty cantos had to come

to light in South India, what is now presented was the first systematic and

critical study to be undertaken to the author and the text and its position

vis-a-vis other Mahakavyas. In addition to the above study and the critical

edition of the cantos which were at that time unpublished, the book offers

an examination of the large number of extra-verses found in some MSS of the

text and showing them as interpolations.

Review(s)

“In the present work the author had made a very intensive study of the poem

of Kumaradasa from the historical, cultural and the rhetorician’s point of

view… The romantic story of the discovery (of the MSS) of this brilliant

classical Mahakavya, ne

About the Author(s)