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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
in favour of the agglutinative one; and a vast number of more or less late tatsama and tadbhava words was introduced in place of pure, regularly developed Prakrit ones. When, why and how this has happened, remains yet to be solved. Why and how can well be explained, but when is a difficult and no less important problem. This can be done only when we go direct to the original MSS. containing vernacular works instead of their corrected editions by Sanskritised scholars. The popular authors have been more or less modernised, and it is very doubtful whether they can ever be accessible in their original form. But there exists a large mass of unknown and little known works in MSS. to be found especially in Jain-Libraries only they should be faithfully edited with complete apparatus for their study. The book under review will really serve as a model how this work should be executed.
It contains the text with its grammatical sketch and its glossary, with notes and an introduction. The last deals with the MS., the language of the text, the parallel text partly published by Tessitori, and its subject-matter. The text was found along with others in a MS. copied by a Jain monk Sivavarddhana in Jaitârana (not identified) in 1729 A.D. The authoress had no access to this MS., but only to its copy taken by Prof. Hertel. The wording of the copyist is said to be good and complete and free from blunders.There are some glosses which Dr. (Miss) Krause attributes to the source of Sivavarddhana, thus taking the archtype much further.
[ JUNE, 1926
The third section deals with a similar text partly edited by the late Dr. Tessitori. A great part of the first Adhyâya from both versions has been printed in parallel columns, which enables us to see with the authoress that the other version is younger, but Ido not find it always inferior as she does both in form and contents. Besides, I see there some dialectical differences also.
The discussion on the language of the text is very useful. It deals with its accidence, syntax, phonology and vocabulary. The authoress shows how the grammar offers us a mixture of various Rajasthani dialects, but as Marwari forms preponderate, she seeks the home of the text in Marwâr and finds Jaisalmer as such. The language of the Nasaketari Katha bears much resemblance to Marwârî, but I do not see anything of the sort with its Thali dialect. The authoress has not supported her statement by any substantial facts; and I find that all the Thali peculiarities mentioned by Grierson (Linguistic Survey of India, IX, II, 109 ff.) are conspicuous in this text by their absence. Whenever the Mârwârî grammar does not agree with that of our text, the Jaipuri and Malvi ones do, to mention the Rajasthant dialects, or the Gujarati, one does, to mention the language to which all Rajasthani dialects belong in a way. In any case the text shows distinct phases of an earlier stage of linguistic development, as shown by the authoress. She offers some remarks on the language of the Sanskrit passages occurring in the text. But really speaking only the introductory verses come in question, and these are not in Sanskrit but in the vernacular.
As for the subject-matter, the authorees is of opinion that it is a very short and rather bad abstract of the Násiketopákhyána published by Belloni Filippi, adding that in some cases the Vardha-Purana is its source. The text begins with an episode about the birth of the hero, which accounts for the name, Nasiketa (born through the nose), and then follows the chief story. The plot is not without interest. The hero goes to the world of the dead to fulfil the curse uttered by his father in anger. The god of death would not take him into his power, as the boy's time is not yet ripe. The latter observes the conditions in various heavens and hells and returns to the world of the living. The description of good and bad deeds and of their corresponding rewards and punishments gives us some idea of everyday life and its ideals among the then Indians. The public and private recitation of the story is considered. meritorious; and it has a moral purpose like its Iranian parallel, Arddy Viraz Namay. I cannot omit to mention a curious coincidence that the latter, too, has its Old-Gujarati version (vide Collected Sanskrit Writings of the Parsis, Part V, Arda Guira, where it has been taken from a MS. written in 1415 A.D.).
The text is printed in Nagari script, and is punctuated in European fashion, the original punctuation also being retained. Mistakes like omissions, repetitions, etc., have been carefully noted. Thus we are given a fair idea of the original state of the text. There are some cases and they are very few, where I would read the text differently. I propose to deal elsewhere with this and other points and also with some mistakes in the translation of the text which has been so faithfully prepared by the same authoress in Asia Major, vol. I The otherwise, with discussions on parallel passages notes contain very useful material, linguistic and from Belloni Filippi, Tessitori and others. They will be found of much help for understanding obscure passages. A systematic grammatical sketch follows, to which is added a section under the heading Syntactical Remarks. A glossary with references to the text ends the volume. couple of misprints are there. Let us hope that Dr. The get-up of the work is excellent-though a (Miss) Krause's example be followed by those in a better position to prepare monographs of Indians who love their mother-tongue and who are J. C. TAVADIA.
this kind.
