The translation of Bana presents much difficulty from the elaboration
of his style, and it has been a specially hard task, and sometimes
an impossible one, to give any rendering of the constant play on
words in which he delights. I have sometimes endeavoured to give
what might be an English equivalent, and in such cases I have
added in a note the literal meaning of both alternatives; perhaps
too much freedom may have been used, and sometimes also the best
alternative may not have been chosen to place in the text; but those
who have most experience will know how hard it is to do otherwise
than fail. Some long descriptions have been omitted, such, e.g.,
as a passage of several pages describing how the dust rose under
the feet of Candrapida's army, and others where there seemed no
special interest or variety to redeem their tediousness. A list of
these omissions [33] is given at the end, together with an appendix,
in which a few passages, chiefly interesting as mentioning religious
sects, are added. I have acted on Professor Cowell's advice as to the
principle on which omissions are made, as also in giving only a full
abstract, and not a translation, of the continuation of 'Kadambari'
by Bhushana. It is so entirely an imitation of his father's work in
style, with all his faults, and without the originality that redeems
them, that it would not reward translation. In my abstract I have
kept the direct narration as more simple, but even when passages are
given rather fully, it does not profess in any case to be more than
a very free rendering; sometimes only the sense of a whole passage
is summed up. I regret that the system of transliteration approved
by the Royal Asiatic Society came too late for adoption here.
The edition of 'Kadambari' to which the references in the text are
given is that of the Nirnaya-Sagara Press (Bombay, 1890), which
the full commentary makes indispensable, but I have also throughout
made use of Professor Peterson's edition (Bombay Sanskrit Series,
No. xxiv.). For the last half of the Second Part [34] I have referred
to an anonymous literal translation, published by the New Britannia
Press Depository, 78, Amherst Street, Calcutta.
I have now to offer my grateful thanks to the Secretary of State
for India, without whose kind help the volume could not have been
published. I have also to thank Miss C. M. Duff for allowing me to use
the MS. of her 'Indian Chronology'; Miss E. Dale, of Girton College,
for botanical notes, which I regret that want of space prevented my
printing in full; Mr. C. Tawney, librarian of the Indian Office, for
information as to the sources of Indian fiction; Mr. F. F. Arbuthnot
and Professor Rhys-Davids, for valuable advice; Professor C. Bendall,
for his description of the Kamandakiya-Niti-Çastra, and his constant
kindness about my work; Mr. F. W. Thomas, of Trinity College, for
letting me see the proof-sheets of the translation of the 'Harsha
Carita'; and others for suggested renderings of difficult phrases,
and for help of various kinds.
But especially my thanks are due to Professor Cowell [35] for a
generosity and unwearied helpfulness which all his pupils know,
and which perhaps few but they could imagine. I read through with
him the whole of the First Part before translating it myself, so that
mistakes in the translation, many as they may be, can arise only from
misunderstanding on my part, from too great freedom of rendering,
or from failing to have recourse to the knowledge he so freely gives.
'Vrihatsahayah karyantam kshodiyanapi gacchati;
Sambhuyambodhim abhyeti mahanadya nagapaga.'