The Indian Inculturation of European Textual Criticism

In: D’Intino, Silvia ; Pollock, Sheldon (Hrsgg.): The Space of Meaning. Approaches to Indian Philology. Publications de l’Institut de Civilisation Indienne du Collège de France 2019, pp. 495-513

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Abstract

In Kālidāsa’s play Vikramorvaśī we find in the second act an interesting passage, where Urvaśī uses her divine power to create a love letter to be found by the king. The king reads it, finds his love confirmed, and is excited. Fearing that his sweaty hands might efface the writing, he asks the Vidūṣaka to hold the letter. The magical creation of a letter in literary fiction may not be the obvious place to hunt for realia, but the passage contains an interesting technical term relevant for textual criticism.