Clay Sanskrit Library newsletter Sept 2007

Tue Oct 2 20:18:05 UTC 2007

Dear colleagues,

I would like to draw your attention to the autumn issue of the Clay  
Sanskrit Library newsletter which includes information on newly  
published and forthcoming volumes.

You can view this newsletter in html format by following this link
http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/newsletter/06_csl_news_sept07.php

and you can subscribe to the CSL mailing list to receive future  
newsletters:
http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/newsletter.php

I apologise in advance for cross-posting.

Tomoyuki Kono
Clay Sanskrit Library
http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org

Clay Sanskrit Library Newsletter: September 2007

Welcome to the autumn edition of the Clay Sanskrit Library
Newsletter. For this season of harvest we have plenty to offer on our
website, ranging from excerpts and text-critical notes to a guide to
electronic publishing involving multiple languages and scripts.

CONTENTS:

Four New Volumes for October: Excerpts Now Available <#1>
Book Extras: Ancillary Textual Notes <#2>
Review of the ‘Maha·bhárata’ <#3>
New CSL Web Pages <#4>

  1. FOUR NEW VOLUMES FOR OCTOBER: EXCERPTS NOW AVAILABLE
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/excerpts.php>

  The four volumes to be released this autumn embody the broad
spectrum of Sanskrit literature covered by the Clay Sanskrit Library.
Judit Törzsök’s double bill presents her fresh translation of the
entertaining fables of ‘Friendly Advice’ as well as ‘King
Víkrama’s Adventures.’ With many helpful notes this volume is
ideal for Sanskrit learners and younger Sanskritists. Linda Covill’s
Buddhist romance (and anti-romance) brings one of India’s oldest
kāvya works to a modern English readership. Justin Meiland’s
translation of the concluding part of ‘Shalya’ describes
graphically the downfall of Dur·yódhana. Sheldon Pollock, now our
joint General Editor, gives us the classic dramatization of the famous
Ramáyana story in his ‘Rama’s Last Act.’ You can download
excerpts of these volumes and more on our website
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/excerpts.php>.

  “Friendly Advice” by Nārāyaṇa & “King Víkrama’s
Adventures”
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Friendly-Advice-and-King-V%C3% 
ADkrama%E2%80%99s-Adventures-v-40.html>

  Judit Törzsök

  “Friendly Advice” combines numerous animal fables with human
stories. In one tale an intrusive ass is simply thrashed by his
master, but the meddlesome monkey ends up with his testicles crushed.
This volume also contains the compact version of “King Víkrama’s
Adventures,” thirty-two popular tales about a generous emperor, told
by thirty-two statuettes adorning his lion-throne.

  Download excerpt
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Friendly-Advice-and-King-V%C3% 
ADkrama%E2%80%99s-Adventures-e-30.html>

  Handsome Nanda
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Handsome-Nanda-v-43.html>
  by Aśvaghoṣa

  Linda Covill

  Nanda has it all—youth, money, good looks and a kittenish wife who
fulfils his sexual and emotional needs. He also has the Buddha, a
dispassionate man of immense insight and self-containment, for an
older brother. When Nanda is made a reluctant recruit to the
Buddha’s order of monks, he is forced to confront his all-too-human
enslavement to his erotic and romantic desires.

  Download excerpt
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Handsome-Nanda-e-32.html>

  Read Translator’s Insights
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Handsome-Nanda-i-4-ov-43.html>

  Maha·bhárata Book Nine: Shalya (volume two of two)
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Maha%C2%B7bh%C3%A1rata-IX:-Shalya- 
(volume-two-two)-v-75.html>

  	Justin Meiland

  In one of the most famous passages in the “Maha·bhárata,”
Dur·yódhana, the heroic but flawed king of the Káuravas, meets his
end when he is dishonorably defeated in battle by his arch enemy,
Bhima. Framing a fascinating account of the sacred sites along the
river Sarásvati, the duel poignantly portrays the downfall of a once
great hero in the face of a new order governed by Krishna, in which
the warrior code is brushed aside in order to ensure the predestined
triumph of the Pándavas.

  Download excerpt
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Maha%C2%B7bh%C3%A1rata-IX:-Shalya- 
(volume-two-two)-e-31.html>

  Rama’s Last Act
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Rama%E2%80%99s-Last-Act-v-66.html>
  by Bhavabhūti

	Sheldon I. Pollock

  “Rama’s Last Act” by Bhava·bhuti is counted among the
greatest Sanskrit dramas. The work at once dramatizes the
“Ramáyana”—it is one of the earliest theatrical adaptations of
Valmíki’s epic masterpiece—and revises its most intractable
episode, the hero’s rejection of his beloved wife. Human agency in
the face of destiny, the power of love, and the capacity of art to
make sense of such mysteries are the themes explored in this singular
literary achievement of the Indian stage.

  Download excerpt
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Rama%E2%80%99s-Last-Act-e-33.html>

2. BOOK EXTRAS: ANCILLARY TEXTUAL NOTES
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/extras.php>

You can consult new ancillary pages containing various text-critical
notes to the Sanskrit text of the following volumes on this Book
Extras <http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/extras.php>
  page. We hope they will be useful to Sanskritists and those who
would like to pay as much attention to the Sanskrit as to the English
translation.

The Birth of Kumára
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Birth-Kum%C3%A1ra-v-1.html>

  Text-critical Notes
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/excerpts/kumara/kumara-notes.php>
  (HTML)

Maha·bhárata Book IV: Viráta
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Maha%C2%B7bh%C3%A1rata-Four:-Vir% 
C3%A1ta-v-28.html>

  Variant Readings
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/excerpts/MBh4Virata_variants.php>
  (HTML)

Maha·bhárata Book VIII: Karna (volume one of two)
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Maha%C2%B7bh%C3%A1rata-VIII:- 
Karna-(volume-one-two)-v-29.html>

  Emendations to the Sanskrit Text
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/excerpts/karna/karna- 
emendations.php> (HTML)

  Maha·bhárata Book IX: Shalya (volume one of two)
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/Maha%C2%B7bh%C3%A1rata-IX:-Shalya- 
(volume-one-two)-v-10.html>

  List of textual variants and emendations
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/excerpts/MBh_Shalya1_variants.php>
  (HTML)

  3. REVIEW OF THE ‘MAHA·BHÁRATA’
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/press.php>

  You can read the review of the current CSL volumes of the
‘Maha·bhárata’ written by Simon Brodbeck here (PDF)
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/press/ROSA_June07_Review.pdf>,  
published in Religions of South Asia <http://
www.equinoxjournals.com/ojs/index.php/ROSA>.

  4. NEW CSL WEB PAGES

Read “The Clay Sanskrit Library and Electronic Publishing,”
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/electronic_publishing.php>
  an insightful article on electronic publishing written by Stuart
Brown, our XML maestro.

We have a new page
<http://www.claysanskritlibrary.org/volumes_all_authors.php>
  listing all current and future CSL volumes in alphabetical order of
Sanskrit authors’ names.