Reviews

Summary

The Reviews section surveys recent publications in Indology and Sanskrit studies. It begins with an appraisal of the first volume of Pandit Sasibhusan Vidyalankara’s Jivani‑Kosa, a comprehensive Bengali dictionary of mythological and historical person-names. The reviewer praises the author for compiling information from eighty‑four Sanskrit texts—including Vedas, Brahmanas, Upanisads, Epics, Puranas and Dharmasastras—and for providing references to sourcesfile:///home/oai/share/split_pdfs/378-395-reviews.pdf#:~:text=The%20volume%20under%20review%20treats,It%20is%20written%20in%20good. The dictionary covers entries in depth; for example, the article on Visvamitra spans nearly four pages and draws on sources ranging from the Rg‑veda to various Puranasfile:///home/oai/share/split_pdfs/378-395-reviews.pdf#:~:text=may%20be%20mentioned%20that%20112,lists%20of%20references%20are%20pro. The reviewer regards the Jivani‑Kosa as an unprecedented contribution to Hindu mythology and anticipates that later volumes will address non‑Indian figures. The section then reviews S.N. Tadpatrikar’s edition of the Srimad‑Bhagavad‑Gita with variants from Kashmiri manuscripts. The edition follows earlier work that uncovered a Kashmiri recension of the Gita. Tadpatrikar collated six Kashmiri manuscripts and noted variant readings; he does not claim to produce a critical edition but his work demonstrates that the Gita exists in multiple recensionsfile:///home/oai/share/split_pdfs/378-395-reviews.pdf#:~:text=This%20little%20work%2C%20giving%20us,examine%20them%20carefully%20before%20the. The reviewer notes that the Kashmirian text often improves the vulgate and clarifies obscurities, though the differences do not materially affect the substance of the workfile:///home/oai/share/split_pdfs/378-395-reviews.pdf#:~:text=examinaticn%20of%20the%20interesting%20variants,13%20difficult%20to%20be%20con. The review comments on debates raised in the introduction about the Narayaniya episode and the Kshatriya origin of the Gita, indicating that further data are needed to settle these questionsfile:///home/oai/share/split_pdfs/378-395-reviews.pdf#:~:text=Turning%20,introduction%2C%20one%20feels%20that%20here. Additional reviews assess an edition of the Kavyaprakasa with translations and commentaries, describing it as a technical text widely studied and often printedfile:///home/oai/share/split_pdfs/378-395-reviews.pdf#:~:text=There%20are%20not%20many%20technical,regarded%20%E0%AA%A5%E0%AA%A1%20one%20of. The reviewer notes the editorial effort and the inclusion of five commentaries. Other works mentioned in the Reviews section include texts on Sanskrit poetics, new editions of Sanskrit drama, and critical notes on the printing of technical treatises. Throughout, the reviewers provide constructive criticism and contextualize the works within ongoing scholarly debates. The section highlights the diversity of current research—from encyclopaedic dictionaries to new readings of classical texts—and emphasises the importance of rigorous textual criticism and philology.