This page has been fully proofread once and needs a second look.

INTRODUCTION.
 
I. THE AUTHOR.
 
Testimony of later writers.
 
Abhinanda, the author of this lengthy but charming piece of compo-
sition in the form of a Mahākāvya entitled the <i>Râmacarita</i>
was known to the later writers under several names showing
his popularity in the learned circles. He was known as
Abhinanda, Abhinandana, Gauḍābhinanda, Sātānanda,
Âryāvilāsa and Vilāsa. As this author possessed rare gifts of composition
and a vigorous style he became famous as a poet even in his life-time, and
consequently the later writers locked upon him as a poet equal in merits to
Kālidāsa, Bāṇa and Vākpatirāja. They showed their respects to him by
quoting his verses in their compositions, and classed him amongst the best
poets of India. The later works referring to Abbinanda may be divided in
three distinct classes :
 
I. Anthologies.
II. Creative poems and Alankāra works.
III. Scholastic works and stray compositions.
 
I
 
The compilers of the following Anthologies quote profusely from the
works of Abhinanda to whom they occasionally attribute the names of
Abhinandana and Gauḍābhinanda.
 
1. <i>Kavîndravacanasamuccaya</i> is a Sanskrit Anthology edited[^1] by the
celebrated Orientalist Dr. F. W. Thomas in 1912. The edition is based on
one single Ms. of the work discovered by Mahāmahopādhyāya Pandit Hara-
prasāda Śāstrī from Nepal. Both the discoverer and the editor of the work
are of opinion that the nature and the writing of the Ms. cannot warrant any
date later than 1200 A. D.[^2] In this work no less than five verses are quoted
from the works of Abhinanda, though none can be traced in the <i>Râmacarita</i>,
the present work.
 
2. <i>Saduktikarnâmṛta</i> is another Anthology, only a fraction of which has
up till now been published[^3] by the late Mm. Rāmāvatāra Śarmā Sāhityācārya
of Patna. Śrīdharadāsa its author was the son of Vaṭudāsa a contemporary
of King Lakṣmaṇasena of the Sena Dynasty of Bengal and, therefore, belonged
to the twelfth century. As the work was compiled in Bengal most of the
verses quoted therein were the compositions of authors who flourished in
 
[^1.] No. 1309, Bibliotheca Indica, New Series.
 
[^2.] P. 5. The introduction of the <i>Kavîndravacanasamuccaya</i>.
 
[^3.] No. 1343. Bibliotheca Indica, New Series.