Reviews Of Different Books

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REVIEWS Bernhard Kolver, Textkritische und philologische Untersuchungen zur Raja tarangini des Kalhana (= Verzeichnis der Orientalischen Handschriften in * Deutschland, Supplementband 12). Wiesbaden, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1969. XV+67 pp. DM 26.-. Bernhard Kolver's Untersuchungen have been undertaken as Prolegomena for a future edition of the Rajatarangini. A short introduction deals with the sources mentioned by Kalhana, and a characterisation of his work. According to Kolver, the Rajatarangini is a "kavya mit historischem Thema" (p. 10). In fact Oldenberg, to whom Kolver makes no reference, had already stressed this aspect of Kalhana's work.1 However, Kolver points out that, if the literary nature of the Rajatarangini diminishes its reliability as a historical source, the same cannot be said with regard to geographical and cultural data it contains. An appendix contains three studies which illustrate the importance of the Rajatarangini in these respects. The first part of Kolver's book is devoted to a very careful examination of manuscripts and editions of the Rajatarangini. The author shows that most manuscripts derive from MS. A, which formed the basis of Stein's edition. Independent material is to be found in Ag - corrections noted in A from a manuscript which is independent from A; in MS. L-a manuscript discovered by Stein in 1895 and used by him for his translation; and, finally in MS. M - a manuscript bought in 1885 by Hultzsch. M contains about two-thirds of the seventh book and one-third of the eighth book. The whereabouts of A and L are unknown. As to M, Hultzsch has already published the more important variants (cf. p. 20). It seems, therefore, that the available manuscript materials will not be sufficient to improve much upon Stein's edition apart from incorporating readings from L, which have been noted by Stein in his translation, and from M. Kolver recognizes that a new edition will for the greater part not be very different from Stein's edition with the exception of the last two books. We can only hope that MSS: A and L will be rediscovered and that new manuscript materials will be brought to light. Kolver's critical examination of the existing text editions is especially important with regard to Vishva Bandhu's recent edition (Hoshiarpur, 1963-65) which is shown not to satisfy the requirements to be expected from a critical edition. In the first chapter of the second part the author examines a long passage of 161 verses in M which corresponds to 7 verses in Stein's edition (8.1230-36). Hultzsch, who published the text of these verses (they are reproduced on plates 20-24 of K. L. 1 Cf. Aus dem alten Indien (Berlin, 1910), p. 93: "Der gestaltende Prozess, den dieser Stoff in der Tat durchgemacht hat, ist nicht der des historischen Denkens, sondern der Dichtung - der Dichtung im indischen Sinn, mit ihren glanzenden Eigenschaften und ihren Schwachen".