पण्डित नित्यानन्दशास्त्रिप्रणीतं श्रीहनुमहूतम्- Pandit Nityananda Shastri Praneetam Srihanum Hutam

Deeply versed in a host of ancient sastras, Pt. Nitya Nand Shastri stood far above his contemporaries. His phenomenal grasp of Sanskrit grammar and semantics brought him rich laurels. He was also a poet of respectable order, though his poetry too is often conditioned by his erudition. He opted for the form of poetry which the ancients preferred to call sastra-kavya. He is best known for his mighty tome, the Ramacaritabdhiratnam (RCR) which doubtless is his magnum opus. Proudly called Mahacitrakavya, it means to perform the stupendous feat of absorbing Canto One of the Balakanda of the Valmiki-Ramayana in a manner that when read sequentially, the first letters of the various feet of its verses yield the full text of the aforesaid canto.

His Hanumaddutam holds the pride of place in the vast galaxy of the duta-kavyas, which owe their genesis to Kalidasa's famed lyric, the Meghaduta. It represents an opposite pole to the author's Mahacitrakavya but could not wholly shed its fascination for the literary gimmicks. It is written by way of samasyapurti, picking up the fourth feet of the respective stanzas of the Meghaduta to con join them with the three of the author's own creation. It is, however, creditable that the constraints of the samasyapurti did not smother the ease and lucidity that form the hall-mark of the poem.

The Hanumaddutam (HD.) was first issued, with the auto-versified translation in Hindi, from Bombay, way back in 1928. A critical edition of the poem with English and Hindi translation, however, has been a desideratum. The present edition with a delightful English and Hindi translation and critical evaluation of the poem, it is hoped, would meet the want and ensure the HD. a wider currency, both in India and abroad.