Volumes from A to L
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Click on the titles for more information about each volume. Bhatti’s Poem: The Death of RávanaBhaṭṭi
Oliver Fallon To the dry bones of grammar Bhatti gave juicy flesh in his poem, telling the greatest Indian story in clear elegant Sanskrit. Composed in the seventh century CE, in South India, “Bhatti’s Poem: The Death of Rávana” is both a poetic retelling of Rama’s adventures, and a compendium of grammatical and... more » The Birth of KumáraKālidāsa
David Smith Foreword by U.R. Ananthamurthy (To be published in the second edition) This greatest of court epics describes events leading up to but not including the birth of Kumára (also known as Skanda or Karttikéya), the war god destined to defeat the demon Táraka. The gods attempt to deploy Kama, the Indian Cupid, to set the ascetic supreme deity Shiva on fire with... more » “Bouquet of Rasa” and “River of Rasa”Bhānudatta
Sheldon I. Pollock Bhanu is probably the most famous Sanskrit poet that no one today has ever heard of. His “Bouquet of Rasa” and “River of Rasa,” composed in the early sixteenth century, probably under the patronage of the Nizam of Ahmadnagar in western India, attracted the attention of the most celebrated commentators in... more » The Emperor of the Sorcerers (volume one)Budhasvāmin
Sir James Mallinson Budha·svamin tells the astonishing epic tale of the youthful exploits of prince Nara·váhana·datta. It is indeed a great story, as its Sanskrit title declares. Epic in scope and scale, it has everything that a great story should: adventure, romance, suspense, intrigue, tragedy and... more » The Emperor of the Sorcerers (volume two)Budhasvāmin
Sir James Mallinson Volume two of Budha·svamin’s “The Emperor of the Sorcerers” begins with the merchant Sanu·dasa telling the story, an epic in itself, of how he acquired Gandhárva·datta, his daughter whose hand Nara·váhana·datta, the hero of the book, has just won in a lute contest. In this and the... more » The Epitome of Queen Lilávati (volume one)Jinaratna
R.C.C. Fynes The Epitome of Queen Lilávati tells the stories of the lives of a group of souls as they pass through a series of embodiments on their way to final liberation from the continual cycle of death and rebirth. It abounds in memorable incidents and characters, such as Dhana, the rich merchant... more » The Epitome of Queen Lilávati (volume two)Jinaratna
R.C.C. Fynes Jina·ratna, Jain scholarmonk, completed his poem in the year 1285CE in western India, in Jábali·putra, modern Jhalor in the state of Rajasthan. As its title suggests, “The Epitome of Queen Lilávati” is an epitome of a much larger work, “The Story of the Final Emancipation of Lilávati,”... more » Five Discourses on Worldly WisdomViṣṇuśarman
Patrick Olivelle The king despairs of his idle sons, so he hires a learned brahmin who promises to make their lessons in statecraft unmissable. The lessons are disguised as short stories, featuring mainly animal protagonists. Many of these narratives have traveled across the world, and are known in the West as... more » “Friendly Advice” and “King Víkrama’s Adventures”Nārāyaṇa
Judit Törzsök The best-selling Hitopadeśa gives its reader much more than “Friendly Advice.” In one handy collection—closely related to the world-famous Pañcatantra or “Five Discourse on Worldly Wisdom”—Naráyana’s book combines numerous animal fables with human stories, all designed to instruct wayward princes. Tales of canny procuresses compete with those of cunning crows and... more » Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives (volume one of two)Āryaśūra
Justin Meiland The “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives” is a collection of thirty four stories depicting the miraculous deeds performed by the Buddha in his previous rebirths. Composed in the fourth century C.E. by the Buddhist monk Arya·shura, the text’s accomplished artistry led Indian aesthetic theorists to praise its elegant mixture of... more » Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives (volume two of two)Āryaśūra
Justin Meiland In this second volume of the “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives,” Arya·shura applies his elegant literary skill toward composing fourteen further stories that depict the Buddha’s quest for enlightenment in his former lives. Here the perfection of forbearance becomes the dominant theme, as the future Buddha suffers mutilations from the wicked... more » Gita·govínda: Love Songs of Radha and KrishnaJayadeva
Lee Siegel Foreword by Sudipta Kaviraj The “Gita·govínda” of Jaya·deva is a lyrical account of the illicit springtime love affair of Krishna and Radha, a god and goddess manifesting on earth as a cowherd and milkmaid for the sake of relishing the sweet miseries and rapturous delights of erotic love. The narrative framing their bucolic songs was... more » Handsome NandaAśvaghoṣa
Linda Covill Nanda has it all—youth, money, good looks and a kittenish wife who fulfils his sexual and emotional needs. He also has the Buddha, a dispassionate man of immense insight and self-containment, for an older brother. When Nanda is made a reluctant recruit to the Buddha’s order of monks, he is forced... more » Heavenly Exploits (Buddhist Biographies from the Dívyavadána)
Joel Tatelman The Dívyavadána, or “Heavenly Exploits,” is a collection of thirty-eight Buddhist biographical stories. The genre of narratives of an individual’s religiously significant deeds is as old as Buddhism, and its manifestations are as widely spread across Buddhist Asia, in classical and vernacular languages, down to the present day. Volume One contains... more » How Úrvashi Was WonKālidāsa
Velcheru Narayana Rao & David Shulman How Úrvashi was Won (Vikramorvaśīya) is one of the three surviving plays by Kali·dasa (fifth century CE), universally acknowledged as the supreme poet in classical Sanskrit; like the other two works, this play is a masterpiece of lyricism, subtle characterization, and the working through of a bold theme. It tells the... more » “How the Nagas Were Pleased” and “The Shattered Thighs”Harṣa and Bhāsa
Andrew Skilton Two plays that break the rules: both show the hero dying on stage, a scenario forbidden in Sanskrit dramaturgy. From widely different ideological and social backgrounds, each evokes intense emotion in an exploration of love and heroism, conflict and peace, idealism and pragmatic reconciliation. Harsha’s Play, composed in the seventh century CE,... more » “The Lady of the Jewel Necklace” and “The Lady Who Shows Her Love”Harṣa
Wendy Doniger Foreword by Anita Desai (To be published in the second edition) King Harsha, who reigned over the kingdom of Kanauj from 606 to 647 CE, composed two Sanskrit plays about the mythical figures of King Údayana, his queen, Vásava·datta, and two of his co-wives. The plays abound in mistaken identities, both political and erotic. The characters masquerade as one another and, occasionally,... more » Life of the BuddhaAśvaghoṣa
Patrick Olivelle “Life of the Buddha” (Buddhacarita) was composed by a Buddhist monk named Ashva·ghosha in the first or second century CE probably in the north-central Indian city of Ayódhya. This text is the earliest surviving example of the Sanskrit literary genre called kāvya (ornate epic poetry) and probably provided models for Kali·dasa’s... more » The Little Clay CartŚūdraka
Diwakar Acharya Foreword by Partha Chatterjee The “Little Clay Cart” is, for Sanskrit drama, atypically romantic, funny, and thrilling, replete with love, humor, courage, and intrigues. As Wilson put it, the ten-act play is “in many respect the most human of all the Sanskrit plays. There is something strikingly Shakespearian in the skilful drawing of characters, the... more » Love LyricsAmaru, Bhartṛhari & Bilhaṇa
Greg Bailey & Richard Gombrich Ámaru’s sophisticated seventh-century CE “Hundred Poems” are as much about the social aspects of courting, betrayal, feminine indignance and masculine self-pity as about sensuality. Bhartri·hari’s anthology “Love, Politics, Disenchantment” is the oldest of the three, from the fourth century. Interwoven throughout his three hundred idiosyncratic stanzas is a constant sense of... more » |
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