Details

Subjects:

Hindu mythology.
Love -- Religious aspects -- Hinduism.
Love poetry, Indic.
Śakuntalā (Hindu mythology) in literature.
Orphans in literature.
Plays (document genre).

Form/Genre:

Poems.
Manuscripts, Sanskrit.
Manuscripts.

Language:

In Sanskrit and Prakrit (Devanāgarī)

Summary:

Manuscript for private contemplation or public recitation/performance and is a full version of the dramatic retelling of the Hindu mythological figure Śakuntalā, an orphan girl from the union of a renunciant and a heavenly nymph (apsarā). The narrative follows the love affair and marriage between Śakuntalā and king Duṣana and their various trials and adventures. Originally told in the epic Mahābhārata, the story was adapted by the poet Kālidāsa in the 5th century.

Notes:

Title from margin abbreviations throughout, upper left verso.
Written in 11-12 lines per leaf.
37 leaves foliated 1-37, upper left and lower right verso.
Colophon: iti niṣkrā[n]tāḥ sarve saptamoṃkaḥ kṛtiriyaṃ kālidāsasya saṃvat 1825 aśvanavadi 14 [//] (f. 37v).
Dated saṃvat 1825 (1768) (f. 37v).
Mistakes covered over in yellow or blacked out; some corrections and additions in margins; significant syllables, words, or phrases highlighted in red throughout; vertical margins marked with quadruple black line.

Cited in:

Listed in H. I. Poleman, Census of Indic Manuscripts in the United States and Canada (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1938), Poleman 2243 (UP 524).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Coll. 390, Item 524

OCLC:

849656837