The Burning Bush - Suggestion in Indian Literature (An Old & Rare Book)

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With literature in the various Indian languages interacting more vigorously today than ever before, it has become all-important that critical practice in them shares a common theoretical framework, so that the assumptions, analytical tools and evaluative criteria used are roughly uniform. Obviously there are major advantages in evolving this framework from existing Indian theory rather than sources elsewhere. The most widely dominant Indian critical system is the Rasa-dhavanitheory formula ted in Sanskrit in the 9th Century. But before adopting it, it must be revised in the light of other Indian and Western theories, and it must also be tested on texts in Indian languages. It is this latter that Krishna Rayan's book seeks to do. Texts in sixteen languages, in English translation, are analysed and commented upon, in order to ascertain whether pertinent critical observations that arise naturally about them do in fact spring from a moderni zed Rasa-dhvani theory. The conclusion is that they indeed do and that a common Indian poetic is both necessary and feasible. The book is bound to be of much use and interest to all those engaged in critical exposition of Indian literary texts, whether it be through full-length studies, occasional papers, or classroom lectures. book reviews, or classroom lectures.

Educated at the University of Madras and afterwards at the University of London, Krishna Rayan first taught English in colleges affiliated to the University of Madras, including Presidency College, Madras. He then joined the faculty in the National Defence Academy where he was Reader in English until 1966. For the next fifteen years he was Professor of English, first at the University of Zambia, Lusaka and then at Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria. He returned to India in 1981 and now lives in Bombay. Apart from his books: Suggestion and Statement in Poetry (London 1972) and Text and Sub-text (London and New Delhi 1987), Professor Rayan has written extensively in various critical journals in India and abroad, including such leading journals as Essays in Criticism, Oxford and The British Journal of Aesthetics, London. As a critic, Professor Rayan has been engaged over the years in developing a modern theory of literary suggestion.

**Contents and Sample Pages**