Yadavendramahodaya of Nilakantha

The present book is the first attempt to publish a Mahakavya, viz. Yadavendramahodaya of Nilakantha with its commentary, Tippani, composed by V.S. Ranade. The Yadavendramahodaya is a Mahakavya in ten sargas describing the life of Lord Krsna from his birth till his marriage with Rukmini. It was composed in the middle of the nineteenth century and immediately, a commentary was written on it to keep it current. The work is based on two manuscripts of the original Kavya and one manuscript of the commentary, which are preserved in the manuscript–collections of the Bombay University Library and the Bharat Itihas Samshodhaka Mandal, Pune. The present work is the first ever attempt to critically edit this little known and rare work. The scholar, in his exhaustive introduction, deals with such topics as the Author of the poem and his other relatives, his scholarship, the commentator and his scholarship, the available manuscripts and their peculiarities, the canto-wise summary of the poem, sources with incident units, the Historically of Krsna etc. and finally, attempts a Critical Appreciation of the poem. The II part gives the Sanskrit-Text, critically edited along with its commentary and Index of Verses and Quotations. It is a welcome addition to the vast mass of literary works on Krsna.