Tales of Ancient India

By: J.A.B. (Translated By) Van Buitenen

Book Overview

"This admirably produced and well-translated volume of stories from the Sanskrit takes the Western reader into one of the Golden Ages of India. . . . The world in which the tales are set is one which placed a premium upon slickness and guile as aids to success. . . . Merchants, aristocrats, Brahmins, thieves and courtesans mingle with vampires, demi-gods and the hierarchy of heaven in a series of lively or passionate adventures. The sources of the individual stories are clearly indicated; the whole treatment is scholarly without being arid."-The Times Literary Supplement "Fourteen tales from India, newly translated with a terse and vibrant effectiveness. These tales will appeal to any reader who enjoys action, suspense, characterization, and suspension of disbelief in the supernatural."-The Personalist

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226846466
• ISBN13: 9780226846460
• Release Date: January 1959
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Taste of Ancient Indian Narrative Literature

This interesting book provides fourteen stories from ancient India, most of which have sub-stories in them. They are typically Indian in their style and content, dealing with characters like kings, princesses, aristocrats and Brahmins along with vampires, demigods and courtesans. The events narrated happen in kingdoms specified and places known to the Indians. The narratives are particularly interesting with elaborate descriptions and detailed characterizations. Each story contains a lesson and a moral. These are drawn mainly from two ancient Sanskrit collections of stories, which themselves are adaptations of a lost work named 'Brhatkatha', the writing of which itself is another interesting tale narrated in the 'Introduction'. These stories concern the northern India, dealing with an age from the first until the seventh century A.D. J A B van Buitenen who was professor and chairman of the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago has translated these stories from Sanskrit and presented them without any embellishments or updating. That makes the original style and fantasy of these tales available to the reader. These stories provide a good taste of Indian narrative literature of old to the inquisitive Western reader. They are sure to appeal to anyone who enjoys action, adventure and characterization.