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Der Kathakosa : Text und Ubersetzung mit bibliographischen Anmerkungen by Ingeberg Hoffmanu, Munchen, 1974
C. H. Tawney's English translation of an annoymous Kathakośa (1895) has been frequently used by students of Indian narrative literature, but original Sanskrit text did not become available till Jagdishlal Shastri published it in 1942. Shastri's text, besides being based on two very late Mss. only, is full of nistakes. For the text in the work under review, the editor has used four Mss., two of which were from the Mss. collection of the L. D. Institute of Indology. The text is carefully prepared and so far as the Sanskrit portion is concerned it can be taken as satisfactory on the whole. Only the non-Sanskrit verse passages contain numerous errors, which shall have to be removed with the help of better Mss. materials and the comparative data pertaining to the tales.
In the German translation the editor has pointed out numerous places where Tawney's rendering was incorrect. Exegetical and explanatory notes add to the value of the edition.
The Sanskrit language of the work is typical of late Jain narrative works : a kind of substandard, popular Sanskrit (usually called Jain Sanskrit) which was considerably influenced by Prakrit, Apablıramsa and contemporary New Indo-Aryan dialects. We offer here our observations on a few doubtful or disputable interpretations, p. 5 1.8 : lavai vijjulā gayane - Here lavai is interpreted following
PSM. (=Pajasaddamahalınavo). But Sheth lias recorded the only occurence of the verb from the Süryaprajñapti (ie. Candraprajñapti), Pähuda 20, where it is transitive (te no vijjum lavanti, no asaņiri lavaṁti etc.), while here it is intransitive. Most probably it is a wrong reading for khivai, which is characteriscally used to mean 'flashing of lightning (Samdešarāsaka 140 : airāvai gayaại khivamtiyai; also at 141: Turner's Indo-Aryan Languages, nos. 3682-84, where we find several derivatives in Sindhi and Panjabi).
The verse adavihi etc. - It derives from some pre-Kumārapalapratibodha source for the Devapälakatha. It is also found in the version (called Dhanya-kathānaka) contained in Devacandra-sūri's commentary on the Mülasuddhi-prakarana!
of Pradyumna-suri (p. 79). The commentary was written in 1. Mulakuddhi-prakarana Vol. 1, ed. by pt. A.M. Bhojak, Prakrit Text Society Series,
15, 1971
p. 11
