Art. XI. — Notes on Alaṅkāra Literature

Extract

The Alaṅkṅaraśāstra may be said to bear somewhat the same relation to the Plays and Poems that the Vedānta system does to the Upanishads, and the student of that general literature is not fully equipped without it. The most popular and probably the most generally useful work of this class is the Kāvyaprakása, and the main object of this paper is to assist the unlearned by indicating as far as possible the sources from which its illustrations were drawn. As, however, much of its material was derived from older treatises of the same kind, it will be desirable in the first instance to notice them very briefly in chronological order, especially as no such epitome exists at present; and in doing so I shall not only draw from my own resources, but also endeavour to bring together valuable items of information scattered about in Reports, Prefaces, Periodicals, and such like literature not always easy of access. The first section of the paper will, therefore, be devoted to Notes on the date and authorship of the Kāvyaprakāśa, and on the treatises which preceded it; and before that work itself is dealt with I hope to give the hitherto unpublished text of Udbhaṛa's short treatise, to which reference is made below.