Studies in Classical India: A Collection of the Articles of Raghuvira

This volume is a collection of the notes and writeups of Prof. RaghuVira on a kaleidoscope of ancient and modern topics, of cultural, social, ;grammatical and cross-cultural questions.;India had cultural contacts over the centuries with different lands and cultures. Here are reproduced his lecture notes on the Vedic and Avestic convergences. The contacts between India and Iraq go back to the Baveru-jataka, where Baveru is Babylon. An overview of the literature of Laos deals with inscriptions, poetry and romance, stories from the Panca-tantra judicial stories.;Prof. RaghuVira presents a comparison of the Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese translations of the Suvarna-bhasottama-sutra. The meanings of single words are given to illustrate the translation techniques of the Chinese and Tibetan masters. Parallels from the Pali jakatas illustrate the evolution of a Mahayana sutra from a Theravada text.;From his younger writings is an appreciation of the Rtusamhara as the early and immature work of Kalidasa but with a clear Kalidasian ring. A radio talk on svastika broadcast in January 1939 is a ring of the times when Hitler’s aggression had evoked world-wide interest in its symbolism.;The problem of the recensions of the Rgveda has been discussed at length from different texts. The differences in the groups of sources, the caranavyuhas and the puranas, are detailed in extenso.;Hereafter are some Hindi writings of Prof. RaghuVira on Hindi lexicography, China, Indonesia, Kalidasa, Sanskrit studies in Germany, the automatons in the Samarangana-sutradhara of King Bhoja, and the phonetic sutra of Panini.;The two versions of Rama saga in the Chinese Tripitaka, translated by Kekaya and T’an-yao in AD 472, and the other by the Sogdian monk K’ang Seng-hui in AD 251 are included at the end. The Chinese text, its transcription, word-to-word meaning, and a running rendering can be used as a text for Buddhist Chinese.;The writings of Prof. RaghuVira on the art, history, literature and thought of various countries of Asia will form a series of six volumes.