The present volume, originally intended to be published as Studies in Dharmassstra, vol, ii (Medineval Period), is now being presented to the public as Studies in Nibandha-s It is a sequel to Studies in Dharmalastra (vol. i Ancient Period), published in 1964 and as such the number of the Appendices (D to I) in the body of the present work is inadvertently in continuation of those of the previous work, but is A to F in the Appenadices themselves. Like the previous work it is also a collection of the present writer's originally published papers of the last three decades, except the portions relating to Govindananda's fifth digest, the Kriyakaumudi and his place of residence and social pedigree and the major portion of the detailed description of his Varsakriya kaumudi, which are being published here for the first time. It covers the whole of Eastern and Northern India, including Bengal, Mithila and Uttarapradesa and describes in detail some of the nibandha-s, composed in these areas between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries of the christian era. But its treatment of the work of Raghunandana, the great Bengali digest-writer of the 16th century, is rather short, describing as it does only the contents of his neglected small work, the Mathapratisthuditattva, embodied in section vi and concerning itself with 'consecration of temples in the 16th century'. This was published earlier in the Bharatiya Vidya vol. xiii, Bombay, 1952, only a year later than the subject- matter of section vii, dealing with "A few remarks on S.C. Banerji's 'Smrtinibandha Literature and Bengal's contribution." Though the originally published ABORI (Poona) paper, which contained the present section vii, listed the already published papers by the present writer on Raghunandana, yet the list was naturally wanting in the mention of the name of the later Bharatiya Vidya paper. Section vii, though augmented here with the mention of the present writer's monograph viz, Raghunandana's indebtedness to his predecessors, published in 1955 from the Asiatic Society, Calcutta, inadvertently repeats the previous omission of the rference to the Bharatiya Vidya paper, which reference is made here also by way of supplementing the information of this paper, as given in note 141 on p. 91 of the present work. The publication of the present writer's above-mentioned monograph on Raghunandana is the primary reason of his exclusion from the present volume of details of Raghunandana's other works. The present treatise, however, delineates in extenso the chronology and contents of the works of some of Raghunandana's more important predecessors, the works of whom were immensely laid by him under contribution for the production of his encyclopaedic Smrtitatta, divided into 28 parts. As in the previous volume, so in the present one the author wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to his veteran friend and inspirer, MM. Dr. P.V. Kane, Bharataratna, National Professor of Indology and to his friend and colleague, Prof. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, the editor of the Indian Studies: Past & Present. The chronology of the respective authors, treated in this volume, except that of Vidyapati and Govindānanda, is based upon Dr. Kane's History of Dharmasastra, vol. i and the co-operation and courtesy of Prof. Chattopadhyaya are responsible for the speedy publication of the present volume in such a fine form.
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