Nalopákhyánam : Story of Nala, an episode of the Mahábhárata: the Sanskrit text, with a copious vocabulary and an improved version of Dean Milman's translation, by Monier Williams.

Date:
1879
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nalopákhyánam : Story of Nala, an episode of the Mahábhárata: the Sanskrit text, with a copious vocabulary and an improved version of Dean Milman's translation, by Monier Williams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    was before a mere congeries of distinct compositions by various authors. Part of the Maha-bharata is considered by some ^ to be as old as the fourth century B. c.; but all Hindu chronology is more or less conjectural; and it would be impossible to fix with certainty the date of the composition of any of the principal episodes. The Story of Nala is not part of the main plot of the poem, and probably belongs to a much earlier period of Indian history. The subject of the great Epic is the war between the Kurus or hundred sons of Dhrita-rdshtra and their cousins the five sons of Pd^ndu. • • • • But about this leading-thread are collected a vast number of ancient legends and traditions, under the weight of which it is often lost, if not altogether broken. In all Oriental books of fables it is common for the principal narrative to be interrupted by a series of stories within stories, loosely connected with the original theme, and often completely overlaying it. So it is with the Mahd-bhS,rata. The epi¬ sodes form by far the greater portion of the poem, and generally intervene to break the chain of the narrative, when the incidents are most stirring and the interest is most at its height. The war between the rival princes is doubtless founded on fact; and much valuable matter has been extracted from the narrative by Professor Lassen and other Sanskritists, in elucidation of the early history of India. According to the Vishnu-Purana, Dhrita-rdshtra and Pdndu were the sons of the widow of Vicitra-virya by his half- brother Vy^sa or Krishna-Dvaip^yana This Vicitra-virya ^ See my ‘ Indian Wisdom ^ (W. H. Allen & Co., London), p. 317. ^ As Vicitra-virya (Vydsa’s half-brother) died without children, the Hindu law, like the Mosaic, permitted Vy^sa to raise up offspring to his deceased brother. Satyavati, mother of Vydsa, was afterwards wife of S'antanu.