Kalatattvakosa : A Lexicon of Fundamental Concepts of the Indian Arts, Pervasive Terms Vyapti (Vol-I)

This first Volume of Kalatattvakosa has been out of print for some years and there has been a great demand for its revised edition. Meanwhile Volume II on Concepts of Space and Time has come out in 1992, Volume III on Primal Elements - Mahabhuta in 1996 and Volume IV on Manifestation of Nature - Srsti-vistara in 1999. In these volumes the methodology and context of the articles has been improved and enlarged soa as to set a format for the entire series. But due to the specific nature of the first volume it has not been possible to revise it in complete uniformity with the following volumes.

While revising this volume our aim was mainly to eliminate factual errors and printing mistakes. The selection of terms has not been changed. However, the volume has been given the title: Pervasive Terms - Vyapti which remained a desideratum in the previous edition. Uniformity with the series has also been achieved with regard to bibliography and index which add to the usefulness of this Lexicon.

The positive response to the first four volumes of Kalatattvakosa has been a great encouragement and confirmation that this series is fulfilling a unique and necessary task. It has been stressed repeatedly by readers and reviewers that the articles do not only throw light on the connection of the Indian Arts with others fields of knowledge, but that they actually present an insight into Indian culture as a whole, based on fundamental concepts. Hence the Lexicon is useful for students and teachers as a source of textual material and for any reader interested in Indian culture, providing the basic insights of the Indian traditions and arts.

In such an ambitious enterprise shortcomings are unavoidable. The articles presented in this volume have certainly not covered all the aspects, schools and approaches of such fundamental terms. But they can serve as source material and starting points for a more comprehensive understanding of these concepts.

The reader is referred to the Introductions to Vols II, III and IV for a more detailed description of the general approach and methodology of the Lexicon.

I thankfully acknowledge the assistance of the coordinator, Dr. R. C. Sharma, Prof. V. N. Misra, academic adviser and of the staff of the Varanasi office who have carefully revised the book: Dr. S. Chattopadhyay, Dr. N. C. Panda, Dr. Pranati Ghosal, and Sri Gautam Kumar Chatterjee has efficiently composed the text in the computer. I also thank Dr. Advaitavadini Kaul and Dr. R. Sathyanarayana for their suggestions.