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116
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
verse of Prasasti II. In the published text that verse is given thus:
Ba phtu vô [Ma]hi dêvô
bhakti
chumbitah [1] Atmanam mu[hu]r-ikshanté yat-pada-nakhadarpané
From the two rubbings before me I would read the first half of the verse, -
Sa pâtu vô Mahadevô Brahm-adya bhakti[m=a]sthitah [1] "May that Mahadeva protect you, in the mirror of whose foot-nails Brahman and the other
(gods) repeatedly see themselves, when engaged in worshipping him!"
As regards the reading bhaktim=dsthitdḥ, I may add that the akshara tá is quite clear in at least one rubbing, and that the sign for sthi is like the sign for the first syllable of sthitvd in line 24. The consonant of the akshara preceding ethi may undoubtedly be read m, and I cannot recognize below it the sign for the vowel u. For the general idea contained in the verse, I may draw attention to the expression Hari-Brahm-ddi-dévastuta, applied to Siva in verse 2 of Prasasti I.
G.
In the place of the word kritajňau in verse 9 of Prasasti II., my two rubbings give kritarthau, which no doubt yields a better sense, and with which we may compare kritinau in verse 23. The akshara tá is clear in both rubbings, and the sign for rth is like the sign for the same conjunct in bhogartham in line 30.
н,
There are other passages in the two poems, where I should feel inclined to alter the text. Thus, for [ma]ládi- in verse 8 of Prasasti I., I would suggest the reading: anddi-; and for [bhuvámpa]tir in verse 35 of the same Prasasti, I would put gavámpatir, the sun,' an alteration which seems to me to be imperatively demanded by the particle cha after the word komalaruchis in the same line. But, unable to prove the correctness of these readings from the imperfect materials at my disposal, I would rather conclude these remarks by drawing attention to a difficulty which presents itself to me in verse 7 of the first
Prašasti.
-
3
In that verse the poet tells us that Siva surpasses even the god Vishnu, and that Parvati rides on a lion. Both Vishnu and the lion are denoted by the word harsh, which is qualified by a compound word, read in the published text,
[MARCH, 1891.
Yu[ddha]-kri[d]&-nikritt-âsura-sa[rma]
pa[sya]
"who drank the stream (of blood) from (the body of) the demon slain in a playful fight," or "who drinks the streams of the blood of those slain (by thee) in the battle-play."
I never like to see words within brackets which are not clearly suggested by the wording or idiom of the original text. And, in the present passage, I have the further difficulty that I know of no authority for translating sarma by 'the stream." For, according to Ujjvaladatta, sarma and that meaning appears appropriate in the only means gamana, 'the act of going (or flowing);" passage, in the Big-Vêda, in which the word seems to have been met with hitherto. Turning to my rubbings, I find that the akshara, read rma (in sarma-pasya), does certainly not look like the sign for rma, which we have elsewhere in this inscription. Had I to edit the inscription, I should probably read the end of the compound asurasanghapasya, and should explain this word to mean both the leader of the host of demons' and the leader of the herd of elephants' (= gajayathapasya); but I should not be surprised, if other scholars were to suggest an even more appropriate reading. Göttingen.
F. KIELHORN.
PROGRESS OF EUROPEAN SCHOLARSHIP. No. 23. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft for 1889. (Vol. XLIII.)
Dr, Max Grünbaum commences the volume with notes on Firdûsi's Yusuf and Zulaikha. The article, extending over about thirty pages, and traces the various items to their sources in takes up the myth of Joseph as given by Firdhet, Talmudic and Koranio literature. The twelfth sura of the Quran, although its account differs from that of the Bible in important particulars, says really very little, and Firdast has evidently drawn his inspiration from the legends of the Talmud, and those embalmed in Arabic commentators such as Zamahéart, Baidawi and Tabart. The article, which is really a delightful collection of Joseph-folklore, will not bear compression. It must suffice to point out how the spirit of measure for measure runs through the whole. Jacob suffers through Leah imperson. ating Rachel on the wedding night, because he impersonated Esau to his father. He sells away the child of a female slave, so he is condemned to have his favourite son sold as a slave. Joseph was proud of his beauty and boasted
