1862.] Notices of Boohs connected with Sanskrit Literature, 203 
Notices of Books connected with Sanskrit Literature. 
The Kumara-Sambhava , eighth canto , with a commentary by Prema 
Chandra Tarhabagxs a. Calcutta, 1862. 
It is generally believed that only seven cantos of the Kurnara- 
Sambhava .are extant, and some have said that Kdlidasa 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 t'o determine. The Professor of Rhetoric in the Sanskrit 
College has just published an edition of the eighth canto, the first 
of these doubtlul sections, and he promises in the preface, that, should 
A 
his labour be approved, he will publish the remainder in the same 
manner. 
The present canto describes the lotes of S'iva and Parvati, 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 beeii 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.”}; 
# There ia a MS. df it in the Sanskrit College Library, and Dr. Aufrecht 
gives an account of two MSS. in his Bodleian Catalogue. The lost 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; “ yatha. va Jcumdra- 
sambhave y utiamadeoatayoh parvati par nines' war ay oh sambhog as'rivgdravarna* 
nam. Idam iritroh sambhogaoarnanam ioatgautam anuchUam , ityaluih .** 
t urn Ms fi i 
