FOREWORD 

    The fact that Andhra has made significant contribution to Sanskrit language and literature through the centuries is borne out by the numerous works on arts and sciences that have emerged from the area. There is hardly any branch of literature but is attempted and no attempt but is successfully achieved. This is as true in respect of literature and literary criticism as in the other branches of Knowledge. At the beginning of the 14th Century Vidyanatha wrote his Prataparudrity and a number of works on literary criticism have since fiooded the field. Dr. P. Sriramamurti, M.A., Ph.D. of the Andhra University, Waltair has done real service to the Telugus, by collecting, arranging and assessing the value of the Andhras and presenting his findings to the scholars in his ``Contribution of Andhra to Sanskrit Literature''. It now remains for devoted research scholars in India especially Andhra to prove into these manuscripts mentioned by him and see to it that deserving works are brought to light at an early date and made available to scholars. It is with this intention probably that Dr. Sriramamurti himself has taken up a critical exition of the Camatkaracandrika of Visvesvara which is a work in the field of poetics which aims at a novel explanation of the theory of the essence of poetry being poetic charm or Camatkara. The concept of Camatkara as the essence of a kavya has not only been propounded here for the first time in the history of Sanskrit rhetoric but has been made the title of the work itself. The present work is a short and comprehensive manual of poetics panegyrising Singabhupala, the author's patron. The author has broken some new ground in establishing that Camatkara is the soul of poetry--Guna, Riti, etc., and even Rasa being subservient to it. Another distinguishing feature of this work is the inclusion of a section on the mystical significance of letters and syllables and an attempt at trying to establish the existence of Rasa by the various Pramanas. The style is simple and the diction of the work is felicitous. The editor has done well in copiously dealing with the contribution of Andhra to poetics in a chronological order in his valuable introduction to the present work. The Andhra University, Waltair at whose instance, the work has been published deserves out congratulations and it is up to this University to publish some more of the hitherto unpublished works of Andhra scholars. I hope and trust that this work will draw the appreciation of scholars of Sanskrit and that Dr. Sriramamurti would continue to evince interest in the publication of many more works of this kind. V. SUBBA RAO Professor and Head of the Department of Sanskrit ANDHRA UNIVERSITY, WALTAIR Dated 16-11-1968