This collection of research articles deals with various problems of Sanskrit literature, ancient Indian history, art and architecture. Section I deals with problems presented by several Sanskrit works, namely the lower limit of the date of the original Harivamsa, Kalapriyanatha mentioned in Bhavabhuti`s plays the identification of the date of Dhananjaya the author of the Dvisandhana Kavya and the Namamala and the fixation of his date the historical background of Rajasekhara`s Viddhasalabhanjika etc. It gives also for the first time a detailed account for Soddhala`s Udayasundarikatha.

Pāṇini’s grammar is the oldest surviving grammar of Sanskrit, dating back to the fifth century BCE. In its completeness of coverage of linguistic elements and its theoretical and analytical sophistication, Pāṇini’s grammar is surprisingly modern. It has long provided inspiration for many ideas in modern linguistics, and continues to attract scholars’ attention in the fields of Sanskrit and linguistics. Pāṇinian Studies collects seventeen essays on Pāṇinian linguistics in a single volume dedicated to Professor S. D. Joshi, a stalwart scholar of Pāṇinian grammar. The contributors, all scholors of international acclaim and students and friends of Professor Joshi, include Ashok Aklujkar, Pandit V. B. Bhagwat, Saroja Bhate, Gopikamohan Bhattacharya, Johannes Bronkhorst, George Cardona, Achyutananda Dash, Madhav M. Deshpande, Peter Edwin Hook, Daniel H. H. Ingalls, V. N. Jha, Dinabandhu Kar, Paul Kiparsky, Bimal Krishna Matilal, G. B. Palsule, K. Kunjunni Raja, and J. A. F. Roodbergen. Taken together, their contributions encompass the wide range of interests and specializations within the field of Pāṇinian studies.

"Knowledge is of two kinds," said Samuel Johnson in 1775. "We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." Today we think of Wikipedia as the source of all information, the ultimate reference. Yet it is just the latest in a long line of aggregated knowledge--reference works that have shaped the way we've seen the world for centuries. You Could Look It Up chronicles the captivating stories behind these great works and their contents, and the way they have influenced each other. From The Code of Hammurabi, the earliest known compendium of laws in ancient Babylon almost two millennia before Christ to Pliny's Natural History; from the 11th-century Domesday Book recording land holdings in England to Abraham Ortelius's first atlas of the world; from Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language to The Whole Earth Catalog to Google, Jack Lynch illuminates the human stories and accomplishment behind each, as well as its enduring impact on civilization. In the process, he offers new insight into the value of knowledge.

At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press’s Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. Language of the Snakes traces the history of the Prakrit language as a literary phenomenon, starting from its cultivation in courts of the Deccan in the first centuries of the common era. Although little studied today, Prakrit was an important vector of the kavya movement and once joined Sanskrit at the apex of classical Indian literary culture. The opposition between Prakrit and Sanskrit was at the center of an enduring “language order” in India, a set of ways of thinking about, naming, classifying, representing, and ultimately using languages. As a language of classical literature that nevertheless retained its associations with more demotic language practices, Prakrit both embodies major cultural tensions—between high and low, transregional and regional, cosmopolitan and vernacular—and provides a unique perspective onto the history of literature and culture in South Asia.

Study with text of the commentary on Amarakośa, classical verse thesaurus of Sanskrit synonyms and homonyms.

Beginning in the sixth century C.E. and continuing for more than a thousand years, an extraordinary poetic practice was the trademark of a major literary movement in South Asia. Authors invented a special language to depict both the apparent and hidden sides of disguised or dual characters, and then used it to narrate India's major epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, simultaneously. Originally produced in Sanskrit, these dual narratives eventually worked their way into regional languages, especially Telugu and Tamil, and other artistic media, such as sculpture. Scholars have long dismissed simultaneous narration as a mere curiosity, if not a sign of cultural decline in medieval India. Yet Yigal Bronner's Extreme Poetry effectively negates this position, proving that, far from being a meaningless pastime, this intricate, "bitextual" technique both transcended and reinvented Sanskrit literary expression. The poems of simultaneous narration teased and estranged existing convention and showcased the interrelations between the tradition's foundational texts. By focusing on these achievements and their reverberations through time, Bronner rewrites the history of Sanskrit literature and its aesthetic goals. He also expands on contemporary theories of intertextuality, which have been largely confined to Western texts and practices.

Inscriptions suggest that Kapardi I, the founder of the Shilahara dynasty of Thane emerged in the early 9th CE as the feudal lord of the Rashtrakuta King Govinda III. They have left several epigraphical footprints in the form of Copper Plate and Stone Inscriptions in North Konkan. Rupali Mokashi has presented an extensive and holistic study of the Shilaharas of Thane as gleaned through recently discovered epigraphical sources. These inscriptions have unveiled new rulers like Mahakumara Keshideva. A revised chronology with the help of six new Copper Plate and Stone inscriptions of the Shilahara dynasty will be the highlight of this work. Kings Jhanjha and Jaitugi are explored by her in the light of epigraphical data. Epigraphical references of coalescence of scribal class into a caste, Kumarisahasadanda, resettlement of the learned Brahmanas of Karad to North Konkan offer an insight into the society of early medieval North Konkan. A critique is done of Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jain sacred sites of North Konkan as gleaned through the inscriptions. Rise of Chalukya King Kedaradeva vividly explains the emergence of contemporary power centres on the eve of decline of the Shilaharas in South Konkan. The transfer of power from the decline of Satavahanas to the rise of the Shilaharas of Thane, as well as from the decline of Shilaharas till the firm footing of the Portuguese in North Konkan is traversed with the help of epigraphical footprints.