Description: Classical Indian poetics prized the skillful use of alaṅkāras, or "ornaments"--literary figures of speech. An Alaṅkāra Reader is a groundbreaking panoramic overview of this tradition, presenting extensive and accessible translations of key works.
Review Quotes: An Alaṅkāra Reader instantiates "integrity," a quality cherished by classical Sanskrit literary theorists that becomes evident "when things of the past and of the future that are uniquely amazing take shape, as it were, before one's very eyes." In language friendly to all kinds of readers, Yigal Bronner has given us an integral, groundbreaking history of Sanskrit reflection on poetics, which opens up a bright future in which Indian thinkers can help us understand the ornaments that make literature beautiful. A dazzling achievement.--Maria Heim, author of Words for the Heart: A Treasury of Emotions from Classical India