This seventh volume of the series comprises two kavyas of great lyrical beauty, one of them in the Yamaka style and the other generally conforming to the second letter alliteration which has been popular with the poets of Kerala from the period of Samgham literature. Nalodayah should be considered composition as on the earliest the famous Nala-Damayanti episode dealt with in the Mahabharata and had been falsely paraded as one of the works of Kalidasa for a while. It's authorship has been assigned by the present writer to Ravideva of the 9th-10th century A.D.

Srikrsnavijayah composition of a is the Kerala poet known as Sankarakavi who was the court poet of a Kola ruler of Northern Malabar of the 15th century A.D. with the name of Keralvarma. This poem which excels in sabdalankara had attained great popularity and, though the poet is being mentioned with great respect all the time, his composition has practically gone out of circulation. In his detailed introduction the present translator has thrown a lot of light on Poet Sankara and his times.

Dr. K.P.A. Menon, B.Sc., M.A, LL.B, Ph.D. Chancellor of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, New Delhi is an eminent scholar, scientist and administrator who has held many important assignments in the government including the post of Defence Secretary to the Govt. of India. Epic poetry and dramas have been his special field of interest and he is also trying to unearth the vast treasures contained in Sanskrit literature in diverse fields like agriculture, science and technology, polity etc: He is the recipient of a large number of national and international awards including the Honorary Fellowship of Biographical Academy of the Commonwealth & International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, Distinguished Leadership Award of the American Biographical Institute, Albert Einstein Memorial Medal, the Sahityanikasa and the Kalidasa Awards for his Sanskrit writings.

This seventh volume of the "Classical Sanskrit Literature of Kerala" series comprises two kavyas of great lyrical beauty, one of them in the Yamaka style and the other one generally conforming to the second letter rhyming which has been popular with the poets of Kerala right from the period of the Sangham literature. About the authorship of Nalodaya there have been some controversies but its Kerala origin has now been widely accepted. Srikrsnavijayam is the work of a poet with the name of Sankara who, most often referred to as Sankarakavi, flourished during the 15th century in the Northern part of Kerala.

While Nalodaya has got, for reasons that are being mentioned separately, wide circulation outside Kerala and even outside the country, it looks rather surprising that Poet Sankara's epic poem dealing with the life story of Krsna has not received the kind of recognition it deserves. In Ulloor's "History of Kerala literature" the poet has referred to poet Sankara in a side story dealing with Vasudeva Bhattatiri, the author of the most famous trio of Yamaka kavyas. The writer has mentioned that much credence need not be given to the legend that by eating the skin of the banana discarded by Vasudeva in the shrine of Lord Sasta, Sankara, the author of Srikrsnavijayam became a great poet. People possibly wanted to bring in a divine origin to the genius of this great poet as has been done in many other cases.

**Contents and Sample Pages**