Encyclopaedia Of Indian Literature: Vol 3

This volume of the Encyclopaedia concentrates on histories of different languages including Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asian, and of literature in them. The usual fare of entries 0n significant authors and books is also provided in alphabetical order. These surveys mention, willy-nilly, a good many of the authors and books on which separate entries also occur in the Encyclopaedia, leading, maybe, to an impression of repetition; but in order to offer a clear perspective for an understanding of the growth and development of Indian literature, it was thought necessary to err by a reasonable excess, allowing the entries on books and authors to serve as illustrations of trends and turns in the process of development.

It has been noted by some reviewers that the general entries are not common to all languages. In fact, they cannot be. Some forms of literature are not as popular or important in some languages as they are in others. And since the representative character of the entries was expected to be maintained, we could not insist on the inclusion of entries on the same general topic in all the languages. Additionally, in the lists prepared by the expert committees of all the languages, all the general topics were not found to be common. We could not naturally interfere with the lists and in some cases, the entries on the general topics found in the lists, did not reach us even at the last stage of printing. As it has been editorially promised in the first volume, we will include all important entries, left out owing to unavoidable reasons, in the last volume of addenda. We will also accommodate in the last volume entries on the general topics, if on second thought, the expert committees decide to have them in common with other languages.