Bana's Kadambari is often appointed as a text-book in the Indian Universities, and. owing to the peculiar characteristics of its style, the students often find it a hard task to translate the intricate passages in it; in spite of the help they receive in the class-room from cheir Professors. Some editors try to satisfy the needs of 4eir readers by issuing voluminous. notes, whose very extent, however, frightens away the student; at any Tile it becomes a tire- some task to wade through a bulky book for obtaining light on one's own particular difficulty. Moreover, only a literal and complete translation can solve man-y of the simpler difficulties of the ordinary student as regards the meanings of individual words and constructions 6f sentences, 'which the annotator may have passed over as being easy. The present translation has been prepared at the request of many students who require some such help. Excepting that of Miss Ridding; no other English translation of the whole of the Kadambari exists ; and Miss Ridding's translation, excellent in its own way, and admirable for its elegant English, is not, I am afraid, quite suited to the requirements on our University students. The translation here offered, is complete, without the omission of a single word or phrase it is as close as the idiom of the language permits and particular care has been bestowed up on passages involving puns and suggested senses. I venture to hope, therefore, that a careful use of this translation will lighten the labour of the student and enable him to get through his work with the least expenditure of time and- trouble. I have to thank Miss Ridding from whose translation I have borrowed a phrase here and an expression there. Any suggestions as to the change of plan of the translation corrections, & will be cordially welcomed.
Bana's farfamed KADAMARI is rightly reckoned as his master - piece. In It his imagination takes rapid and sublime Bights - thought-succeeds thought and one simile is followed by another till the chain is so extended that one loses sight" of the master idea which is smothered in his luxuriant imagery. His memory surveys the whole field of Indian history and mythology and his extensive acquaintance with Sanskrit vocabulary brings in words and expressions not familiar to even advanced students of the laDgtl8&e. It is especially popular among the Pandits on account of its feature as well as its unique character. But it is inaccessible to ordinary students owing to its most difficult and Iong compound., as well as obscure and double meaning word’s and alIusions to strange mythological events. The Present edition is an humble attempt to meet this long felt want by means of a copious and easily intelligible Sanskrit commentary and critical and explanatory English notes which in almost all cases, anticipate the difficulties of even ordinary students and also contain much useful information.
The first difficulty which presents Itself at the outset to an ordinary reader of kadambari is to comprehend the extremely complicated plot of the work. Most of the characters are represented successively In the second or third birth 8IId the whole plot is involved in a deep mystery the solution of which is to be found only at the end. One looks In vain for the appearance of the heroine whoes name the work bears till one has nearly gone through half of the work. The whole story is put in the mouth of a Parrot; one hardly knows that he Is really the sage Pundarika, the Upanayaks or subordinate het of the romance; and• the main put which is intended to explain the mystery of the parrot, is narrated by the sage Jabali to his pupils. The usually numerous compound epithets and lengthy descriptions also prevent an ordinary reader from following the thread of the narrative. The students again on account of their numerous other studies have hardly time or patience to go through the whole story even once cursorily. Only certain parts of the work are generally prescribed for University examination and unless the whole plot is before the mind these parts being unconnected become mostly unintelligible.
It is proposed, therefore, to give in the beginning a short abstract of the story, without which it would not be easy to appreciate even the following remarks upon the literary merits of the author.
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