2023-02-19 13:59:48 by ambuda-bot
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An extract from Dr. P. Peterson's paper on
Courtship in ancient India.
(Read before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
on the 29th of July 1891). ÷
>
?
Among the 540 manuscripts collected by Horace Hayman
Wilson in Benares and Calcutta, and now deposited in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford, there is one which contains the Kamasutra of
Vâtsyâyana, along with a commentary by one Bhâskara Nrisimha.
The commentary was written in 1788 at the request of one Vrijalal.
It is described as being the work of a man who was not sufficiently
acquainted either with the language or with the subject-matter
of his author. The Kamasutra itself is a work which is destined,
I believe, to throw a great deal of light on much that is still dark
in the ancient history of this country. Aufrecht, who denounces
the subject-matter of the book with all a scholar's asceticism, saw
its importance and gives up seven columns of his catalogue to a
long extract from it He notes that Vâtsyâyana refers to the
following previous writers on the subject of love:-Auddâlakı,
Gonikâputra, Gonardiya, Ghotakamukha, Chârâyaṇa, Dattaka,
Bâbhravya, and the Bâbhraviyas. Aufrecht also pointed out that
Vâtsyâyana must be put before Subandhu, the author of the
Vasavadatta. For both Mahes'vara and Hemachandra tell us that
Vâtsyâyana is another name for Mallanaga, whom Subandhu
quotes.
The extracts given by Aufrecht attracted the attention of
scholars, but the book itself has only been accessible to them very
recently. The translation into English (1883) was printed and
circulated privately only; and it was, besides, for scholars a very
inadequate representation of the original We owe it to Pandit
Durgaprasåd of Jeypore that we have at last an excellent edition
of the book, accompanied by a better commentary than that which
Aufrecht describes. This is the commentary, a fragment of which
I secured in 1883 for the Bombay Government collection, and
An extract from Dr. P. Peterson's paper on
Courtship in ancient India.
(Read before the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
on the 29th of July 1891). ÷
>
?
Among the 540 manuscripts collected by Horace Hayman
Wilson in Benares and Calcutta, and now deposited in the Bodleian
Library at Oxford, there is one which contains the Kamasutra of
Vâtsyâyana, along with a commentary by one Bhâskara Nrisimha.
The commentary was written in 1788 at the request of one Vrijalal.
It is described as being the work of a man who was not sufficiently
acquainted either with the language or with the subject-matter
of his author. The Kamasutra itself is a work which is destined,
I believe, to throw a great deal of light on much that is still dark
in the ancient history of this country. Aufrecht, who denounces
the subject-matter of the book with all a scholar's asceticism, saw
its importance and gives up seven columns of his catalogue to a
long extract from it He notes that Vâtsyâyana refers to the
following previous writers on the subject of love:-Auddâlakı,
Gonikâputra, Gonardiya, Ghotakamukha, Chârâyaṇa, Dattaka,
Bâbhravya, and the Bâbhraviyas. Aufrecht also pointed out that
Vâtsyâyana must be put before Subandhu, the author of the
Vasavadatta. For both Mahes'vara and Hemachandra tell us that
Vâtsyâyana is another name for Mallanaga, whom Subandhu
quotes.
The extracts given by Aufrecht attracted the attention of
scholars, but the book itself has only been accessible to them very
recently. The translation into English (1883) was printed and
circulated privately only; and it was, besides, for scholars a very
inadequate representation of the original We owe it to Pandit
Durgaprasåd of Jeypore that we have at last an excellent edition
of the book, accompanied by a better commentary than that which
Aufrecht describes. This is the commentary, a fragment of which
I secured in 1883 for the Bombay Government collection, and