Sakoontala or the Lost Ring - An Indian Drama
Kalidasa
English
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[S']AKOONTALÁ
OR THE LOST RING
AN INDIAN DRAMA
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE AND VERSE
FROM THE SANSKRIT OF KÁLIDÁSA
BY
SIR MONIER MONIER-WILLIAMS, K.C.I.E.
M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., PH.D.
BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT, HON. FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY
AND LATE FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD
PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION.
The fact that the following translation (first published in 1855) of
India's most celebrated drama has gone through seven editions, might
reasonably have absolved me from the duty of revising it.
Three years ago, however, I heard that Sir John Lubbock had thought
'[S']akoontalá' worthy of a place among the hundred best books of the
world, and had adopted my version of the original. I therefore
undertook to go through every line and once again compare the
translation with the Sanskrit, in the hope that I might be able to
give a few finishing touches to a performance which, although it had
been before the public for about forty years, was certainly not
perfect. The act of revision was a labour of love, and I can honestly
say that I did my best to make my representation of Kálidása's
immortal work as true and trustworthy as possible.
Another edition is now called for, but after a severely critical
examination of every word, I have only detected a few minor
unimportant points--and those only in the Introduction and Notes--in
which any alteration appeared to be desirable. Indeed it is probable
that the possessors of previous editions will scarcely perceive that
any alterations have been made anywhere.
Occasionally in the process of comparison a misgiving has troubled me,
and I have felt inclined to accuse myself of having taken, in some
cases, too great liberties with the Sanskrit original. But in the end
I have acquiesced in my first and still abiding conviction that a
literal translation (such as that which I have given in the notes of
my edition of the Sanskrit text) might have commended itself to
Oriental students, but would not have given a true idea of the beauty
of India's most cherished drama to general readers, whose minds are
cast in a European mould, and who require a translator to clothe
Oriental ideas, as far as practicable, in a dress conformable to
European canons of taste.
And most assuredly such a translation would never have adapted itself
to actual representation on a modern stage as readily as it now
appears that my free version has done. It has gratified me exceedingly
to find that youthful English-speaking Indians--cultured young men
educated at the Universities of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay--have acted
the [S']akoontalá, in the very words of my translation with the greatest
success before appreciative audiences in various parts of India.
And lest any one in this country should be sceptical as to the
possibility of interesting a modern audience in a play written
possibly as early as the third or fourth century of our era (see p.
xvi), I here append an extract from a letter received by me in 1893
from Mr. V. Padmanabha Aiyar, B.A., resident at Karamanai, Trivandrum,
Travancore.
'SIVEN COIL STREET, TRIVANDRUM,
_'May 1, 1893_.
'The members of the "Karamanai Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society"
acted your translation of "[S']akoontalá" on the 3rd and 5th of
September last year, in the Government Museum Theatre, Trivandrum.
'It was acted in two parts. On the first day Acts I to IV were acted,
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