13. 10 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT POETICS

10 HISTORY OF SANSKRIT POETICS

on धर्मशास् such as अपरार्कटीका and the अद्धतसागर of बललालसेन (begun in 1168 A. D.) refer to the Agnipurāna as an authority. But भरत's नाटयशाख is quoted with reverence by the ध्वन्यालोक, the लोचन and other early writers. Even भामह and दएडी appear to refer to him as an authority as will be shown later on. Therefore, the अग्निपुराख is later than भरत, भामह, दएडी, the धवन्यालोक and probably a and has no claim to be regarded as an origin:' work on the अलक्कारशाखत्र. Moreover, mediaeval writers, guided by their reverence for Puranas in general, because they were ascribed to the mythical Vyasa, naturally looked upon the अग्निपुरास as the most ancient work on the अलक्कारशास्त्र. 3. The Nāțyasastra of Bharata. For several reasons the Natyasastra must be regarded as the oldest extant work on the theory of Sanskrit Poetics. The work contains the first exposition of the rasa theory (for which see part II) and also contains considerable information upon many topics pertaining to the Alankāraśāstra. When I wrote this history of Alankāra Literature in 1923 for prefixing it as an Introduction to my edition of the Sāhityadarpana the only complete edition of the Nātyasāstra that was available was the one in the Kavyamala series. Later on in 1929 Pandit Batuknath Sharma and Pandit Baladeva Upādhyaya published in the Kashi Sanskrit Serics ( often cited as the Chowkhamba S. Series ) a complete edition of the Natyasastra based on two mss. that appear to have been different from those used for the original K. M. edition. In 1929 Mr. Ramkrishna Kavi brought out the first volume of the Natyasastra containing chapters 1-7 together with the very important and learned commentary of Ācārya Abhinavagupta in the Gaekwad Oriental Series. The 2nd volume containing chapters 8-18 together with the commentary called Abhinavabharati in the colophons as well as by later writers such as Rāghavabhatta in his com. on the Sākuntala was published in 1934. The third volume containing chapters 19-27 with the Abhinavabhārati, edited by Mr. Kavi, was published in the G. O. S. in 1954. Prof. Manmohan Ghosh has brought out a translation of chapters 1-27 of the Nātyasāstra for the Asiatic Society of Bengal (1950) with a lengthy Intro- duction, pp. XXXV-L of which deal with the attempts of scholars to publish various chapters of the Nātyasāstra and