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§ 19. Even the Nala, especially in the first chapter, has suffered much from

later hands; but on the whole it is one of the least corrupted episodes. Its antiquity is shown by the simplicity of manners implied in its incidents—the prince, for example, cooks his own food,—by the character of Indra (cf. 1422 N.), and in other ways. See Holtzmann’s Indische Sagen, Stuttgart, 1854, p. xiv. Bruce has attempted to reject definite passages throughout the poem, and has published, at St. Petersburg in 1862, a text of the Nala, reduced from 983 to 522 distichs.

§ 20. The story begins at iii.53.1 (folio 58b) of the Bombay edition of 1877, and at iii. 2072 of the Calcutta edition of 1834.

§ 21. The metre. The stanza (çloka) or distich consists of four octosyllabic verses (pāda). The first and second pādas form together a half-çloka or a line, divided at the middle by the caesura: likewise the third and fourth. The more important rules follow.

a. Odd padas end usually with a first epitrite, ◡ – – –., or antispast, ◡ – – ◡.

b. Even padas end in a diiambus, ◡ – ◡ –, or second paeon, ◡ – ◡ ◡. So the type of the half-çloka is ○ ○ ○ ○|◡ – – ◡̱||○ ○ ○ ○|◡ – ◡ ◡̱. But

c. In no pāda may the syllables 2, 3, 4 form a tribrach, ◡ ◡ ◡, or anapaest, ◡ ◡ –;

d. Nor, in the even pādas, an amphimacer, – ◡ –.

Notes to Page 1.

Line 1. atha, see p. 114, s.v. atha 3. —nalopākhyāna-m, nom.s.n. (see 330) of nalopākhyāna: this last is a compound stem, see s.v., p. 180: its analysis is indicated in the manner mentioned at p. 292, paragraph 2, end: the second member is upākhyāna, as given in the square brackets, p. 180: its initial, u, has evidently combined with the final vowel of the first member to o: according to the important rule 127, that final must have been an a-vowel (a or ā), and, since there is no stem nalā, the first member must be nala: since this logically determines the second member, i.e. distinguishes the ‘Nala-episode’ from all other episodes, the compound is to be classed as a determinative, see 1262.

2.bṛhadaçva, u.f. bṛhadaçva-s (175b), nom.s.m. of bṛhád-açva, see s.v., p. 202: as shown in the square brackets, the first member of the cpd is bṛhánt, which, by 1249a, enters into composition in its weak form bṛhát: by the law of regressive assimilation (159, the most important rule of Sanskrit phonetics), the t becomes d. The combination bṛhad-açvá, with the accent on the ultima, means ‘a great hórse’; the same

combination, with the acct of the prior member, is a secondary adjective cpd, and means ‘having great horses’: here the secondary adjective is used as a substantive, ‘(man) having great horses, i.e. Greát-horse’: see 12932 and cf. the difference between a great heárt and Bunyan’s Mr. Greát-heart. For the ligature çv, see Whitney 136. —uvāca, √vac, p. 236, perf. act. 8d sing., see 800e. —For the connection of this line with the story, see p. 298, §10.

3a. āsīd, uf. āsīt, by the law of regressive assimilation, just mentioned: as was said at p. 290, paragraph 8, the meaning must be sought under √1as, p. 122: the form is imf. 3d sing., 636. —rājā, see p. 290, paragraph 7, and for declension, 424. —nalo, uf. nala-s, 175a: declension, 380. Nominatives in as are extremely common, aNd so of course is the change of as to o. —nāma, acc.s.n. (424) of nāman, see s.v. 3.

3b. vīrasena-suto, uf. -suta-s, 175a: the word is a dependent noun-cpd and = vīrasenasya sutas, see 1264: the stem vīra-sena (see s.v.) is itself also a cpd, and of the same kind as bṛhád-açva. —balī, see 440.