Nala and the Swan Messenger: A Critical Study of the Nalacampu of Trivikramabhatta

The writer of the present book explains the puns as fare as practicable which is a very useful service to the readers of the Nalacampu. She discusses the figures to the speech most elaborately referring to the eminent works on poetics wherever necessary. She gives an appropriate idea of the speciality of each character of the campu specially laying an emphasis of the complex psychology of the female characters confronting difficult situations. The author explains the poetic beauty and novelty of the entire set of imagery presented by the writer of the Nalacampu, which is possible only for a critic with a subtle power of observation. A comparative study of Trivikramabhatta’s campu and the two prose romances of Bana, subsandhu’s Vasavadatta and Kalidasa’s Meghadutta and Raghuvamsa, while critically examing the different aspects of the first work has made the present book of Meena Kumari Devi a lively, scholastic and an entertaining critical work of great value. A chapter added to the book on the geography of India, and another chapter on the contemporary society of Trivikramabhatta have made the book more useful for scholars. In fine, Meena Kumari’s critical literary product is a great contribution to the storehouse of Sanskrit literature. It is hoped that the present work will immensely benefit the literary circle of the world.