402 ON SANSCRIT AND 



philosophy of Capila, as taught by Is'vvAkACRisH- 

 n'a * ; and the copious treatise of astronomy by Brah- 



MEGUI'TA-J-. 



The Nalodaya abovementioned, which is ascribed to 

 the celebrated poet Ca'lid a'sa, is a poem in four can- 

 tos, comprising 220 couplets or stanzas :|^ ; on the ad- 

 ventures of Nala and Damavanti : a story which is 

 already known to the English reader §. In this singu- 

 lar poem, rhyme and alliteration are combined in the 

 termination of the verses : for the three or four last syl- 

 lables of each hemistich within the stanza are the same 

 in sound though different in sense. It is a series of 

 puns on a pathetick subject. 



It is supposed to have been written in emulation of 

 a short poem (of 22 stanzas) similarly constructed but 

 with less repetition of each rhyme; and entitled from 

 the words of the cliallenge with which it concludes. 

 Ghat' a car par a. 



[See Plate A. Fig. ].] 



' * Thirsty and touching water to be sipped from the hol- 

 low palms of my hands, I swear by the loves of sprightly 

 damsels, that I will carry water in a broken pitcher for any 

 poet by whom 1 am surpassed in rhymes.' 



• Author of the Carica or metrical maxima of this philosophy. 

 Suirai, or ai)horisM)s in piosc, -which are user i bed toCAPiLA liim- 

 selt, areexrant: but the work of Iswaka ("kishna is siudicd as the 

 text ot' the Sane' h, a (As. TJts. Vol. VIII. p. <]()().) 



t Ei\X\K\tdi Brahmtsphuta sidd'hantd : other treatises, bearing the 

 same or ;■. similpir title, are wr ri s of d'rtlrent authors. 



t Chiehy //n.tf, with a few anapa-stic st:i"zas [Totaca] . and a 

 ■fill «:nial' r number iambics and trochaics [Praviani and Samani.) 



§ Tra.'slatcd by Mr. Xi>f£)EKsL£Y of Madras, from a tale in the 

 provincial language. 



