J 862.] Notices of Books connected with Sanskrit Literature. 203 



Notices oe Books connected with Sanskrit Literature. 



The Kumara-SanlbhaVa, eighth canto, with a commentary by Prema 

 Chandra Tarkabdgls' a. Calcutta, 1862. 



It is generally believed that only seven cantos of the Kumara- 

 Sambhava are extant, and some have said that Kalidasa died before 

 he finished the work. Few European scholars are aware that the 

 whole of the work exists in seventeen adhyayas,* but whether it really 

 belongs to Kalidasa or not is a question which remains for future 

 criticism to determine. The Professor of Rhetoric in the Sanskrit 

 College has just published an edition of the eighth canto, the first 

 of these doubtful sections, and he promises in the preface, that, should 

 his labour be approved, he will publish the remainder in the same 

 manner. 



The present canto describes the loves of S'iva and Parvatf, but in 

 a manner which befits mortals alone ; and hence perhaps the oblivion 

 into which the poem has fallen, as it violates a direct canon of Hin- 

 du criticism. t Although, however, some of the opening verses, from 

 their indelicacy, do not deserve to be published, this by no means 

 applies to the greater part of the canto, which is chiefly occupied 

 with a very full description of the phenomena of evening and moon- 

 light on the Gandhamadana mountains. Many of the verses are very 

 beautiful, and as they have never before been published, we add a 

 few of those which seemed to us most worthy of being ascribed to 

 Kalidasa. 



" See ! the declining sun, as it hangs on the edge of the western 

 quarter of the sky, seems to make with its long reflected beams a 

 golden bridge across the lake. "J 



* There is a MS. of it in the Sanskrit College Library, and Dr. Aufrechfc 

 gives an account of two MSS. in his Bodleian Catalogue. The last book ends 

 with the destruction of the demon .Taraka, as foreshadowed in the second book. 



t This is probably alluded to in Sahitya D. vii. p. 233; " yatlia vd Jcumura- 

 sambhave, lUlatnadeoatayoh fdrvati 'parames'ivarayu7t sambhog as' ringdravarna* 

 nam. Idam pitroh sambhogaoarnanam icdtyanbam unuchitam, ilydhak." 



