"जगति विविधविद्यासिन्धुमुष्टिन्थयानां परभणितिपरीक्षा युज्यते सज्जनानाम् ।।"
-Mallinātha
It is in this spirit that my learned friend, Dr. P. Sri Ramachandrudu has asked me to introduce his study in English of the admittedly most difficult and most scholarly and authoritative text-book on Sanskrit poetics by Panditarāja Jagannatha, viz., the Rasagangadhara.
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. His versatile genius exceeded the bounds of traditional conformity, and he was a thinker who added new dimensions to precise thought on poetics by introducing for the first time the use of new tools of precision perfected by Neo-logic and Mīmāṁsā maxims. His rapier-sharp thrusts cut across orthodox views and contemporary expositions alike. He is proud of his abilities not only to shatter the structures studiously built by earlier thinkers but also to rebuild a mansion of his own on the ruins of the old. His technical jargon is a manacing deterrent to modern students; while his unorthodox thrusts at old and new masters alike is a challenge thrown to pandits to vindicate the validity of earlier views.
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