Book Reviews

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

Page 31

REVIEWS
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to it. On p. 246 the authors remark that a modernized, scholarly approach is found in the translations of S. Radhakrishnan, E. Wood, J. Mascaro, R. C. Zaehner, E. Deutsch, A. Bahm, A. L. Herman, E.G. Parrinder, A. T. de Nicolas and others. A rather mixed bag, to say the least!
It would be unreasonable to expect a work of such scope to be without omissions and errors, but, as far as one can judge by incidental checking, they seem to be surprisingly few. It is to be hoped that the authors will try to keep their bibliographical files up to date and publish supplements from time to time. Recently a bibliography of the Gītā appeared by Ram Dular Singh, Bhagavad Gita rendered in the languages of the world (Calcutta, 1984), which perhaps contains some supplementary information. No doubt the Gita will continue to be translated and studied and bibliographical tools, if well done, will always be welcome. Most welcome of all would be a history of Bhagavadgitā studies which would take into account only those translations and studies which possess any scholarly value, probably a very small fraction of the publications enumerated by Callewaert and Hemraj.
Australian National University
J. W. DE JONG
Siegfried Lienhard, A History of Classical Poetry: Sanskrit - Pali - Prakrit (A History of Indian Literature, III, 1). Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, 1984, VIII, 307 pp. DM 128,
Lienhard's History of Classical Poetry is a comprehensive study of kavya literature in Sanskrit, Pāli and Prakrit. For many years Lienhard has studied kavya and apart from the chapters of his book which have already been published in periodicals (cf. p. V), a whole series of publications testifies to his long-standing interest in this branch of Indian literature.
The first chapter serves as a general introduction to the book. Lienhard explains that it deals with poetry which is partly epic, partly lyrical and written entirely in verse, entirely in prose, or in verse and prose alternately. Formally it embraces two main categories: poetry of the major form (mahakāvya), and poetry of the minor form (laghukāvya) whose important relative is single stanza and short poems (p. 2). Lienhard excludes not only theatre (nataka), but also those works whose aim is not in the first place literary (p. 3). In the following sections of the first chapter Lienhard studies the poetic process, the poet, the training of the poet, the creative process, readers and critics, and original and imitative writing. It is not easy for the Western reader to appreciate a kavya poem in the way a traditionally
Indo-Iranian Journal 30 (1987).