Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/236

Rh acknowledged to be the highest authority on the subject. The best commentators, such as Mallinath, quote this work for their authority. The Sahitya Darpana dilates, in very diffuse style what the Kavya Prakasha contains in essence. Kavya Prakasha however speaks nothing of dramatical composition. Dasharupaka treats of that portion of Rhetoric. Besides, this is the highest authority in its own department.

Kavya Prakasha and Dasharupaka could be read in shorter time than Sahitya Darpana, so the former two have every claim, to be preferred to the latter, and after reading the two first, to read the last also would be waste of time. The purely literary works, should my suggestions regarding the studies of the Grammar and Sahitya departments be adopted, will not require to be studied as class-books in this (Rhetoric) class. The hours that will thus be saved from the immediate objects of the class should be devoted to the study of Mathematics and other works of which I will make mention afterwards.

The students of the Sahitya and Alankara classes attend this class and study Lilavati and Vijaganita. Lilavati is a treatise on Arithmetic and Mensuration by Bhaskaracharya. Vijaganita is a treatise on Algebra by the same author. Both of these works are very meagre. They are in a great measure without any method, and do not contain all that is contained in similar English books. From a curious taste they have been rendered needlessly difficult. The rules and questions are all in verse. On account of this, the students take so great a length of time as four years to study these two books. The examples are too few.