Raghu-va.m'sa, addresses of Oetke and Preisendanz

[aklujkar at unixg.ubc.ca]

        In response to the queries by Uma Satyavolu Rau and Paliath
Narendran regarding the Raghu-va.m'sa: 
        The most reliable and informative editions (I am not sure whether
they can be called 'critical' in the strictest sense of the term but I am
sure they come very close to the standards a critical edition should
maintain)  are those by G.R. Nandargikar and Rewa Prasad Dwivedi.  The
former has been photo-reprinted in 1971 and should be available in any
reasonably good Indological library.  For the latter, ensure that you have
the hard-cover edition titled Kaalidaasa-granthaavalii: Complete Works of
Kaalidaasa, Varanasi: Banaras Hindu University, 1986, and not a paper-back
volume with the same title and publisher and published in 1976.  The
introductions in the hard-cover edition are a mine of information on
earlier attempts.  I understand that in the last two or three years Rewa
Prasad Dwivedi has prepared also a separate critical edition of the
Raghu-va.m'sa and that it has been published by the Sahitya Akademy in New
Delhi. Some of the editions mentioned by Dwivedi contain partial or full
English translations. Looking up library holdings under the names of M.R.
Kale and R. Antoine will also help.  Given the nature of the field, I
suppose, we have not reached a stage where we can speak of a standard
English translation, but, Kaalidaasa being a relatively simple and
well-studied poet, I do not expect any of the available translations to be
misleading if they are literal (as distinct from those which try to be
literary, readable or transcreational).
        
        It is probable that Dr. Karin Preisendanz will move back to Hamburg
in October 1993 (she has been offered a pre-habilitation  position that
makes considerably more time available for research than any regular North
American faculty  position possibly can -- not that she wanted to leave her
present position orthat  her present employers wanted her to leave), but as
of now she is only on a one-term leave from the University of British
Columbia.  Her official address, therefore, is still the same as mine. She
has recently left for a visit to Australia and is expected to be back in
Vancouver toward the end of August. 
        Dr. Claus Oetke, as far as I have heard, has been appointed to a 
position in Stockholm. 
        
        Ashok Aklujkar, Professor, Department of Asian Studies, University
of B.C.,
Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z2, (604) 822-5185, (604) 274-5353,  fax
822-8937.