Book Reviews

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 15

REVIEWS
129
“having no ears". Still in the same passage the sabara youth is said to be: ayahsāram iva girer vindhyasya galantam, which Cowell and Thomas render by "like a melting block of iron from the Vindya" (p. 232). Hueckstedt makes him swallow the iron essence of Mt. Vindhya (p. 112).
In the description of Harşa's elder brother it is said that he has "fixed downcast eyes” (Cowell and Thomas, p. 166). Hueckstedt renders the well-known expression stimitanayana by "wet eyes” (p. 116). On p. 142 Hueckstedt quotes the following passage: vilulitakusumasekhararajasi rajacakre. He renders kusumasekhara, "chaplet of flowers”, by “the tips of their flowers" without taking into account Kane's note: vilulitam kusumasekhararajah yasya, "the pollen in the chaplets on the head of which was shaken (or tossed about)” (pp. 177-178). In Chapter Eight there is a long description of trees in which occurs the following clause: katipayadivasasūtakukkuțīkutiktakutajakoțarah. Cowell and Thomas translate: “the hollow trunks of the Kuțujas were tenanted by the hens with their new broods” (p. 234). Hueckstedt has: “Where wild hens filled the holes in kutaja trees after having been gone a few days” (p. 189). The next clause is: cațakasamcāryamanavācāțacățakairakriyamānacātavah. Cowell and Thomas translate: "While the young sparrows uttered their cries as they were tended by the mother-birds (p. 234). Kane renders samcāryamāņa by being taken from one tree to another”. Hueckstedt has: "young sparrows chased cuckoos and filled the air with their pleasant songs". In the same passage occurs the expression patalamukhakīta "red-mouthed insects” (cf. Kane, p. 220). Hueckstedt has: "insects, whose heads were in the trumpet flowers” (p. 190).
Kern contributed many words and meanings from the Kadambari and the Harsacarita to the small Petersburg dictionary. Scharpe has given a list of all references to the Kadambarī in the small Petersburg dictionary and Schmidt's Nachträge, adding references to Peterson's edition as being more accessible than the one used by Kern. A similar list comprising the references to the Harsacarita would be useful, because Kern refers to an edition of the Harşacarita published in 1876 which is found in very few libraries. One of the meanings given for proșita by the small Petersburg dictionary is "heimgegangen, gestorben", with a reference to Harsacarita 153.9.? In the description of Harsa's elder brother he is said to be: digbhāgam iva proșitadikkunjarašūnyam, which Cowell and Thomas render as "like a quarter of the heavens vacant through the exile of its sky elephant” (p. 166). The same interpretation is given by Kane (p. 119). However, Hueckstedt translates: "like a region without its guardian elephant, which was dead” (p. 116). If Kern's rendering of prosita is based only upon this place, it has to be rejected. It would certainly be useful to carefully examine the references to the Harşacarita in the small Petersburg dictionary and to check that Kern's interpretations are correct in all instances.