Janakiharana of Kumaradasa

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 to 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 In addition to the above study and the critical edition of the cantos which were at that time unpublished, the book offers an examination of the large number of extra-verses found in some MSS of the text and showing them as interpolations.

''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. The publication of this work would be a distinct contribution to Sanskrit Mahakavya Literature.'' --- Late Dr. V.S. Agrawala