INTRODUCTION
While paying a warm tribute, on one occasion, to the
late Lord Oxford (formerly Mr. Asquith) for his classical
knowledge and scholarship, Mr. Baldwin declared that he
was the last of the Romans-"the last of those whose debt
was to Athens and whose inspiration from Rome." It
may likewise be said of Pandit Jagannātha that he was
the last of the "Romans," for, the tradition of Classical
Sanskrit poetry which started practically with Kalidāsa,
and which flourished through the
seventeen centuries, found its last exponent of note in
Pandit Jagannātha. This observation is not of course
intended to convey the impression that the tradition of
Classical Sanskrit Poetry has ceased to exist altogether.
Far from it. The fact is that while, on the one hand, it
cannot be denied that eminent Pandits have proved them-
selves heirs to the tradition which Jagannātha followed
in his day, it has, on the other hand, to be admitted that
successor of Jagannātha has attained to a stature
as great as his own; and, besides as time rolls on, the
tradition is certain to be influenced and proportionately
modified by foreign modes and currents of thought and
expression. Jagannātha, therefore, may well be looked
upon as practically the last representative of the tradition
of Classical Sanskrit Poetry.
vicissitudes of
no
HIS DATE.
The darkness hanging over Indian literary chronology
has become proverbial. Though the assertion of Macdonell
that the Indian mind was lacking in the historical sense
is to be treated as an exaggeration, yet it is not altogether
unfounded.
know next to nothing.
About a great many of Sanskrit writers we
In not a few cases, the dates can