Nala & Damayanti& Other Poems

CONTENTS:


NALA AND DAMAYANTI
NOTES

THE DEATH OF YAJNADATTA
NOTES

THE BRAHMIN'S LAMENT
NOTES

THE DELUGE

THE DESCENT OF THE GANGES

* * * * *




PREFACE.


Those friends who have taken an interest in my literary productions
may feel some surprise at my appearance in the character of a
translator of Sanscrit poetry. To those, and indeed to all who may
take up the present volume, I owe some explanation of my pretensions
as a faithful interpreter of my original text. Those pretensions are
very humble; and I can unfeignedly say, that if the field had been
likely to be occupied by others, who might unite poetical powers with
a profound knowledge of the sacred language of India, I should have
withdrawn at once from the competition. But, in fact, in this country
the students of oriental literature, endowed with a taste and feeling
for poetry, are so few in number, that any attempt to make known the
peculiar character of those remarkable works, the old mythological
epics of India, may be received with indulgence by all who are
interested in the history of poetry. Mr. Wilson alone, since Sir W.
Jones, has united a poetical genius with deep Sanscrit scholarship;
but he has in general preferred the later and more polished
period--that of Kalidasa and the dramatists--to the ruder, yet in my
opinion, not less curious and poetical strains of the older epic
bards.

A brief account of the manner in which I became engaged in these
studies, will best explain the extent of my proficiency. During the
two last years in which I held the office of Professor of Poetry in
the University of Oxford, having exhausted the subject which I had
chosen for my terminal course, I was at a loss for some materials for
the few remaining lectures before my office should expire. I had been
led by the ardent curiosity, which I have ever felt to acquire some
knowledge of the poetry of all ages and nations--to examine some of
the publications of French and German, as well as English scholars, on
the subject of Indian poetry; chiefly those of the Schlegels, of Bopp,
and of De Chezy. I was struck with the singularity and captivated by
the extreme beauty, as it appeared to me, of some of the extracts,
especially those from the great epic poems, the Mahabharata and the
Ramayana, in their Homeric simplicity so totally opposite to the
ordinary notions entertained of all eastern poetry. I was induced to
attempt, without any instruction, and with the few elementary works
which could be procured, the Grammars of Wilkins and Bopp, the
Glossaries of Bopp and Rosen (Mr. Wilson's Dictionary was then out of
print and could not be purchased), to obtain some knowledge of this
wonderful and mysterious language. The study grew upon me, and would
have been pursued with more ardour, perhaps with more success, but for
the constant interruption of more imperative professional and literary
avocations. In itself the Sanscrit is an inexhaustible subject of
interest; in its grammatical structure more regular, artificial, and
copious than the most perfect of the western languages; in its origin,
the parent from which the older Greek, the Latin and the Teutonic
tongues seem to branch out and develop themselves upon distinct and
discernible principles.

I ventured to communicate to the Members of the University who
attended my lectures, my discoveries, as it were, in the unknown
region of Indian poetry, and to introduce translations of such
passages as appeared to me of peculiar singularity or beauty. Though I
was still moving in the leading-strings of my learned guides, I had
obtained sufficient acquaintance with the language to compare their
interpretations with the original text. I afterwards embodied some
parts of my lectures in an article in the Quarterly Review, in order
to contribute as far as was in my power to open this new and almost
untrodden field of literature to the English reader.

Still I should not have presumed to form these translations into a
separate work, nor acceded to the proposal of the publisher of the
present volume, who has himself deserved so well of the students of
oriental lore by his excellent translation, or rather recomposition of
Adelung's "Historical Sketch of Sanscrit Literature," but for the
encouragement and assistance of Mr. Wilson, now, the University may be
proud to say, the Boden Professor of Sanscrit at Oxford. To his most
friendly care in revising these sheets, I owe the correction of many
errors; and Sanscrit scholars will find in the notes some observations
on the text, which will contribute to elucidate the poem of Nala.