signature verses

[Michael Hahn]

Dear Jonathan,

Ashok Aklujkar was so kind as to point to ;Siva.svaamin's
Kapphi.naabhyudaya. Within the mahaakaavya genre this is a well
established practise.

I wonder whether someone knows an example prior to the Buddhist poet and
grammarian Candragomin whose floruit is around 450 or 470 CE. See, inter
alia, my book "Invitation to Enlightenment," Berkeley 1999. In his
"Letter to a Disciple" (;Si.syalekha) both the first and last stanzas
contain the word candra, the last stanza in a kind of double entendre.
The same stanza is also the concluding stanza of his play Lokaananda
which has survived only in its rather poor Tibetan translation; see my
English rendering of the Tibetan version in "Joy for the World,"
Berkeley 1987. In addition to that Candragomin praises himself in the
five act-concluding stanzas, always mentioning his name. Finally, his
remarkable "Hymn in the Form of a Confession" (De;sanaastava), which
again has survived only in its Tibetan translation (rendered into
English by Mark Tatz in "Difficult Beginnings", Boston, London 1985)
contains the word "moon" (Tib. zla ba) in its concluding stanza. Cf. my
paper "A Difficult Beginning" in the Wayman Felicitation Volume.

Best regards,

Michael Hahn

Prof. Dr. Michael Hahn
Fachgebiet Indologie und Tibetologie
FB 10, Philipps-Universitaet Marburg
Deutschhausstr. 12
Tel.: +49-6421-282-4740 or 4741
Fax: +49-6421-282-4995
E-mail: hahnm at staff.uni-marburg.de
URL: staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~hahnm