Acknowledgement

I earnestly thank various individuals and Institutions who have been of great helped me in doing this research.

I am indebted to my Research Supervisor Dr.V.Kameswari for her constant support and encouragement.

I am also grateful to the members of the Doctoral Committee, Dr. S. Padmanabhan, (Prof. of Sanskrit, University of Madras) and Dr. K.S. Balasubramanian, (Deputy Director of the K.S.R. Institute) for motivating me with their valuable suggestions. I also want to record my gratitude for (late) Dr. Revathy (Reader Dept. of Sanskrit, University of Madras) who was a member of the committee earlier.

I thank Dr.T.V.Vasudeva, Deputy Director of the K.S.R.Institute for his valuable comments in whetting the thesis.

My sincere thanks to Dr. Lalitha Balakrishnan, (Principal M.O.P.Vaishnav College for Women) for her understanding and generosity.

I honestly thank Mr. Sujesh. V. Chitty, artist, for his precise pictorial representation of the weapons and vyuhas.

I thank the authorities and of the Adyar Library and Research Centre and also the staff of the Library of K.S.R.I for helping me in my library references.

I am also thankful to the Ph. D. Research Scholars of the K.S.R Institute, especially, Mrs. S. Muthulakshmi, Mrs. Goda Krishnan, Mrs. R. Vasumati, Mrs. K. Rama Kalyani, Mr. S. N. Krishna, Dr. Yamuna Devi and Mrs. Lavanya and also the staff of the K.S.R. Institute, for their co-operation and assistance.

My sincere thanks to Ms. K. Vidyuta, Ph.D. Research Scholar, K.S.R.Institute, for typesetting the thesis in a neat format.