"This is the fourth volume in the Historical Sourcebooks of Classical Indian Tradition series (after A Rasa Reader, A Dharma Reader, and A Sabda Reader), which provides text-based introductions to the most important forms of classical Indian thought. Each volume offers fresh translations of key works, headnotes that orient the reader to the selections, a comprehensive introduction analyzing the major lines of development of the discipline, and exegetical and text-critical endnotes as well as an extensive bibliography. A unique feature, the reconstruction of the principal intellectual debates in the given discipline, clarifies the arguments and captures the dynamism that marked classical thought. This volume is the first of its kind, as what in Sanskrit is called "the science of ornaments" is the oldest and most complex theory of figuration in human history and until the twenty-first century the least studied of Indias major thought systems. Alankara refers to the skillful and pleasing use of poetic figures of speech; it can be loosely defined as the concept of adornment as it applies to literary works. It is of two types, sound and meaning. The first relies on techniques such as alliteration, onomatopoeia, and assonance/consonance; the second on simile/metaphor, personification, and hyperbole. Its methods and principles are believed to have developed between 200 BCE and 400 CE.

The main focus of alankara is to be expressive and pleasing to the reader, and examples appear throughout the work of Bhamaha, Bharata, Dandin, and many other Indian poets and literary figures and in commentaries on their work, selections of which, along with Yugal Bronners own translations, are included"-- Provided by publisher.