If we leave, on the one hand, the Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa, in which the Ramayana-story is only a part, although very important, and on the other, the Setubandha of Pravarasena which deals only with a part of the story and that too in the Prakrit medium, it will be seen that the 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 of 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 In addition to the above study and the critical Edition of the cantos which were at that time unpublished, the book offers an examination of the Large number of extra-verses found in some Mss of the text and showing them as interpolations.
The Late Dr. V.S. Agrawala had observed that 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, next in its poetic merits only to the Raghuvamsa of Kalidasa, is now brought to its finale by the labours of Sri Swaminathan." And he had added that the publication of this work would be "a distinct contribution to Sanskrit Mahakavya Literature". |
