The Recognition of Shakuntala (Clay Sanskrit Library)

421 Pages·2006·0.95 MB·English

by  Kalidasa

THECLAYSANSKRITLIBRARY
FOUNDEDBYJOHN&JENNIFERCLAY
GENERALEDITOR
RICHARDGOMBRICH
EDITEDBY
ISABELLEONIANS
SOMADEVAVASUDEVA
WWW.CLAYSANSKRITLIBRARY.COM
WWW.NYUPRESS.ORG
Copyright(cid:2)c 2006bytheCSL.
Allrightsreserved.
FirstEdition2006.
TheClaySanskritLibraryisco-publishedby
NewYorkUniversityPress
andtheJJCFoundation.
Furtherinformationaboutthisvolume
andtherestoftheClaySanskritLibrary
isavailableonthefollowingWebsites:
www.claysanskritlibrary.com
www.nyupress.org.
ISBN0-8147-8815-7
ArtworkbyRobertBeer.
PrintedinGreatBritainbyStEdmundsburyPressLtd,
BuryStEdmunds,Suffolk,onacid-freepaper.
BoundbyHunter&FoulisLtd,Edinburgh,Scotland.
The Recognition
of Shaku´ ntala
by Ka¯lida¯sa
EDITEDANDTRANSLATEDBY
SOMADEVA VASUDEVA
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
JJC FOUNDATION
2006
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Ka¯lida¯sa
[S´akuntala¯.English&Sanskrit]
TherecognitionofShakuntala/byKalidasa;
editedandtranslatedbySomadevaVasudeva.
p.cm.–(TheClaySanskritlibrary)
Play.
InEnglishandSanskrit;includestranslationfromSanskrit.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8147-8815-7(cloth:alk.paper)
I.Vasudeva,Somadeva.II.Title.III.Series.
PK3796.S4V372006
891’.222222004029513
Contents
Sanskritalphabeticalorder 7
CSLconventions 7
THERECOGNITIONOFS´AKUNTALA¯
Introduction 13
DramatisPersonæ 47
Prologue 50
ActOne:TheChase 58
ActTwo:TheSecret 98
ActThree:ThePassion 130
ActFour:TheFarewell 176
ActFive:TheTragedy 218
ActSix:TheLonging 258
ActSeven:TheAbsolution 316
ParaphraseofPrakrit(cha¯ya¯) 365
Notes 403
Index 411

cslconventions
sanskritalphabeticalorder
Vowels: aa¯i¯ıuu¯.r.¯r.l.¯leaioaum. h. (f)
Gutturals: kkhgghn˙
Palatals: cchjjhn˜
Retroflex: .t.thd. d.hn.
Dentals: tthddhn
Labials: pphbbhm
Semivowels: yrlv
Spirants: ´s.ssh
guidetosanskritpronunciation
a but vowelsothattaih. ispro-
a¯,aˆ rather nounced taihi. In Kash-
i sit mirianpractice,whenvis-
¯ı,ˆı fee arga is followed by p or
u put phitisreplacedbyupa-
dhma¯n¯ıya,herewrittenas
u¯,uˆ boo
f,andpronouncedasan
.r vocalicr,Americanpurdy
unvoiced, short blow of
orEnglishpretty
air.
.¯r lengthened.r k luck
.l vocalicl,able kh blockhead
e,ˆe,¯e made,esp.inWelshpro- g go
nunciation gh bighead
ai bite n˙ anger
o,oˆ,o¯rope,esp.Welshpronun- c chill
ciation;Italiansolo ch matchhead
au sound j jog
jh aspiratedj,hedgehog
m. anusva¯ranasalizesthepre-
n˜ canyon
cedingvowel .t retroflex t, try (with the
h.,f visarga,avoicelessaspira- tip of tongue turned up
tion(resemblingEnglish
totouchthehardpalate)
h),orlikeScottishloch,or .th sameastheprecedingbut
anaspirationwithafaint aspirated
echoingofthepreceding d. retroflex d (with the tip
7
therecognitionofshaku´ntala
of tongue turned up to b before
touchthehardpalate) bh abhorrent
d.h sameastheprecedingbut m mind
aspirated y yes
n. retroflex n (with the tip r trilled,resemblingtheIta-
of tongue turned up to lianpronunciationofr
touchthehardpalate) l linger
t Frenchtout v word
th tenthook ´s shore
d dinner .s retroflexsh(withthetip
dh guildhall ofthetongueturnedup
n now totouchthehardpalate)
p pill s hiss
ph upheaval h hood
cslpunctuationofenglish
TheacuteaccentonSanskritwordswhentheyoccuroutsideofthe
Sanskrittextitself,marksstress,e.g.Rama´yana.Itisnotpartoftra-
ditionalSanskritorthography,transliterationortranscription,butwe
supplyitheretoguidereadersinthepronunciationoftheseunfamiliar
words.SincenoSanskritwordisaccentedonthelastsyllableitisnot
necessarytoaccentdisyllables,e.g.Rama.
ThesecondCSLinnovationdesignedtoassistthereaderinthepro-
nunciationoflengthyunfamiliarwordsistoinsertanunobtrusivemid-
dledotbetweensemanticwordbreaksincompoundnames(provided
thewordbreakdoesnotfallonavowelresultingfromthefusionof
twovowels),e.g.Maha·bha´rata,butRama´yana(notRama·a´yana).Our
dotechoesthepunctuatingmiddledot(·)foundintheoldestsurviving
samplesofwrittenIndic,theAshokaninscriptionsofthethirdcentury
bce.
ThedeeplayeringofSanskritnarrativehasalsodictatedthatweuse
quotationmarksonlytoannouncethebeginningandendofeverydirect
speech,andnotatthebeginningofeveryparagraph.
8
cslconventions
cslpunctuationofsanskrit
TheSanskrittextisalsopunctuated,inaccordancewiththepunc-
tuationoftheEnglishtranslation.Inmid-verse,thepunctuationwill
notalterthesandhiorthescansion.Propernamesarecapitalized,asare
theinitialwordsofverses(orparagraphsinprosetexts).MostSanskrit
metreshavefour“feet”(pa¯da):wherepossibleweprintthecommon
´slokametreontwolines.Thecapitalizationofversebeginningsmakes
iteasyforthereadertorecognizelongermetreswhereitisnecessaryto
printthefourmetricalfeetoverfouroreightlines.IntheSanskrittext,
we use French Guillemets (e.g. «kva sam.cic¯ır.suh.?») instead of English
quotationmarks(e.g.“Whereareyouoffto?”)toavoidconfusionwith
theapostrophesusedforvowelelisioninsandhi.
Sanskritpresentsthelearnerwithachallenge:sandhi(“euphoniccom-
bination”).Sandhimeansthatwhentwowordsarejoinedinconnected
speechorwriting(whichinSanskritreflectsspeech),thelastletter(or
evenletters)ofthefirstwordoftenchanges;comparethewaywepro-
nounce“the”in“thebeginning”and“theend.”
InSanskritthefirstletterofthesecondwordmayalsochange;andif
boththelastletterofthefirstwordandthefirstletterofthesecondare
vowels,theymayfuse.ThishasaparallelinEnglish:anasalconsonantis
insertedbetweentwovowelsthatwouldotherwisecoalesce:“apear”and
“anapple.”Sanskritvowelfusionmayproduceambiguity.Thechartat
thebackofeachbookgivesthefullsandhisystem.
Fortunatelyitisnotnecessarytoknowthesechangesinordertostart
readingSanskrit.Forthat,whatisimportantistoknowtheformofthe
secondwordwithoutsandhi(pre-sandhi),sothatitcanberecognized
orlookedupinadictionary.ThereforeweareprintingSanskritwitha
systemofpunctuationthatwillindicate,unambiguously,theoriginal
formofthesecondword,i.e.,theformwithoutsandhi.Suchsandhi
mostlyconcernsthefusionoftwovowels.
InSanskrit,vowelsmaybeshortorlongandarewrittendifferently
accordingly. We follow the general convention that a vowel with no
markaboveitisshort.Otherbooksmarkalongvoweleitherwitha
barcalledamacron(a¯)orwithacircumflex(aˆ).Oursystemusesthe
macron, except that for initial vowels in sandhi we use a circumflex
9