The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan.

• Author: Gerow, Edwin
• Position: Review

The Collected Essays of A. K. Ramanujan. Edited by VINAY DHARWADKER. New Delhi: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1999. Pp. xviii + 638. Rs 995.

Welcome indeed is this Gesamtpublikation of A. K. Ramanujan's shorter articles and essays--some never before printed. The articles have been arranged in four sections, each introduced by a brief essay written by Dharwadker ("Essays of Classical Literatures") or by guest editors: Wendy Doniger ("General Essays on Literature and Culture"), John Carman ("Essays on bhakti and Modern Poetry"), and Stuart Blackburn and Alan Dundes ("Essays on Folklore"). The whole is preceded by a general introduction by Dharwadker and by two tributes written by the late Edward Dimock and the late Milton Singer. Ramanujan's notes are reproduced as endnotes (pp. 553-96) and a brief index is also appended. The whole gives an impression of great care expended.

Ramanujan, who died unexpectedly in 1993 while undergoing routine surgery, left a legacy of greater dimension than the several slender works that bear his name, Perhaps "man of letters" conveys it better than more ambitious accolades: inspiring teacher, gifted poet, poetic translator, an essayist of immense and often surprising erudition, yet self-effacing and most...