Sambodhi 2018 Vol 41

Author(s): J B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 32

Vol. XLI, 2018
Kathākautukam : Sanskrit rendering of Persian Yusuf-Zulaykha of Jami
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Harīfān bād-ha khurdand o raftand (=The friends experienced wind and went aways) whereas the Iranian text reads the same line as- Harīfān bādeha khurdand o raftand (= The friends consumed liquor and went away). Śrīvara explains it as- पुण्यं शास्त्रामृतं पीत्वा यातास्ते हि कवीश्वराः । We see the word bade has been translated as 3464 in KK and thus we can draw a result that the Iranian reading is more authentic, because it is corroborated by KK.
He has been successful in rendering an abridged translation of the YZ which is easily discernible and understandable, and can be appreciated by a connoisseur of Sanskrit literature. Though, for this, he has/had to give up the Persian poem's multi-layered significance.
The KK is the first Persian literary piece translated into Sanskrit. But on account of the reasons stated above neither was it able to set a literary trend of its own in the Sanskrit tradition, nor was it celebrated in the Sanskrit scholarly world; since no treatise on rhetorics cites a single line from the KK. This venture was not identified by the Sāstrakāras as a different genre of literary endeavour like Campū, which is a new type in Sanskrit poetics. And they never created an independent classification to put the KK and similar texts into. Perhaps the copious grammatical mistakes of Śrīvara would have diluted his importance in the eyes of Sanskrit scholars.
Editors of the present text did not know the Persian language and because of this many discrepancies have crept into the text. This text even after 100 years of its publication still is in need of a critical edition, which would enhance its appreciation. References :
1.
in two
This is an enlarged version of the paper presented in The Third Perso-Indica Conference, Delhi University, 3-4 September 2015. The author is grateful to Professor Girishwar Misra, Thibaut d'Hubert, Satoshi Ogura and Arushi Bahuguna for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper Rgveda-1.89.1 Manusmrti -2.20 Mahābhāsya 1 Brhatsamhitā 2.30 Ganjiphākhelanam-28 (Giridhar Kavi) Ogura, Satoshi (2015) p.3 तस्मिन् मया पण्डितजोनकाख्यं नत्वा गुरुं पण्डितश्रीवरेण ।
7.