Asia and particularly South-east Asia was bound by the tie of a cultural friendship from a fairly carly period. India and her neighbours-far and near like China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Burma, Nepal and Tibet all evinced keen interest in mutual exchange of religious and cultural ideas in the fields of art, architecture, iconography, music, painting and other branches of fine arts.

Scores of Sanskrit treatises dealing with iconography, iconometrics and painting associated with Buddha and Buddhism have been translated into Tibetan, Chinese and other languages by the respective scholars. The Citralaksana of Nagnajit is one of such treatises. It is preserved in Tibetan Tanjur but its original counterpart in Sanskrit is lost. Its authenticity and antiquity is generally acceptable since the ancient texts like the Matsyapurana and the Brhatsamhita had given it due recognition.

I am glad that Dr. Asoke Chatterjee Sastri of our Department of Sanskrit has studied the problems of the Citralakşana in great details. He has translated it directly from the Tibetan text into Sanskrit verses. The text has been prepared with care and attention to details. Dr. Chatterjee's valuable piece of research in ancient Indian Art treatises would, we believe, be very much useful to the academic community.