The Contribution of Panditaraja Jagannatha to Sanskrit Poetics

The Rasagangadhara of Panditaraja is admittedly most difficult and most scholarly and authoritative text on Sanskrit Poetics. While it has been the happy hunting ground of the traditional Sanskrit Pandit, it has also been the despair of many a modern student of Sanskrit trained on Western lines. Jagannatha was not only a great poet but also a stalwart dialectician who started fresh controversies while attempting to silence earlier ones. In the present study, the author has thrown his net wide enough to cover everything relevant on the questions discussed from the traditional as well as modern perspectives. He has not blindly echoed the judgements of other writers, old or new. He has been objective and critical. This work is an indispensable key to open the locked doors of Jagannatha’s intricate theorisings on Sanskrit poetics and is the first successful attempt to view it in proper perspective.