Re: [INDOLOGY] Kathāsaritsāgara 1.1.10-11

[Roland Steiner]

See also J.S. Speyer: Studies about the Kathāsaritsāgara, Amsterdam,  
1908, esp. p. 22 f.:

"My interpretation of çl. 11 is different from that of Lévi. This is  
partly in consequence of a various reading, partly because he  
misunderstood the meaning of the words aucitya and anvaya. As to the  
difference of reading, vidhīyate (Durgapr.'s ed.) seems preferable to  
abhidhīyate (Brockhaus); but in 1886 the ed. of Durgapr. had not yet  
appeared. Aucitya does not mean 'les convenances littéraires'; it is  
the technical term to signify 'appropriateness' [p. 23] taken in the  
widest sense of the word and bearing as well on the different objects,  
characters, individualities to be represented in a poetical  
composition as on the adorning implements and the choice of words,  
expressions and images. Aucityānvaya, then, is the same as  
aucityānvitatvam, literally 'the being provided with appropriateness'.  
Lévi also misunderstood kāvyāṃçasya yojanā. Mańkowski rightly objects  
that the sing. kāvyāṃçasya cannot at any rate mean 'chacune des  
sections du poème' [...], but his own interpretation, that kāvyāṃça  
should be referred to some special part of the poem, is right neither.  
To catch the meaning of kāvyāṃça, it must be compared with devāṃça,  
aṃçāvataraṇa and the like. Somadeva declares that he does not claim  
the pretension of making a kāvya out of the Bṛhatkathā, he has only  
admixed a small portion of kāvya qualities to the simple collection of  
popular tales. In other terms, aṃça has here the signification not  
unlike °gandhi at the end of compounds taught by Pāṇini V, 4, 136, 'a  
tinge of', 'a little of'. My translation of çl. 11 is accordingly: 'I  
have taken care to preserve the appropriateness (of description,  
diction etc. of the original work) and I have added to it some  
qualities proper to a kāvya, without, however, spoiling by this the  
flavour of the tales', v. a. I have added elegance of style and many a  
poetical ornament, yet so that I have not deprived the tales of their  
power to express the rasa's or sentiments aimed at."

Best,
Roland Steiner