Studies in the History of Sanskrit Poetics v1.c2.2

v1.c2.2

My original intention was to write a comprehensive history of Sanskrit Poetics; but in the course of my studies I realised that the available materials were not enough for such an ambitious undertaking. In the following pages, however, I have attempted to approach the subject from the historical point of view, instead of presenting a mere epitome of the different topics of Alaṃkāra, as Regnaud's *Rhétorique Sanskrite* (1884) does. Presuming a general knowledge of the details of Sanskrit Poetics, which may be gathered from any standard text-book or even from Regnaud's useful résumé, and taking the representative writers (and, as far as necessary, the neglected commentators and so-called minor writers), I have made an attempt to trace the development of the discipline through its fairly long and varied course of history which covers more than a thousand years. The first volume of the work, therefore, deals with the preliminary but important question of chronology and sources, on the basis of which the second volume proceeds to set forth the history through its divergent systems and theories.