The Text
Most extant texts of Dashakumaracharita are composed of
- Purvapithika (पूर्वपीठिका, Prologue) divided into 5 Uchchhwasas (उच्छ्वास: chapters);
- The Dsc. proper, divided into 8 Uch.;
- The Uttarapithika (उत्तरपीठिका, Epilogue), without any subdivisions.
Some text at the beginning and the end of Dsc. proper has been lost; thus it contains only eight of the ten narratives, and furthermore, the stories of Rajavahan and Vishruta are incomplete. The 1st and the 3rd parts seem to have been added later by various authors (some of whom have tried to mimic the style of the original); indeed, there are several disparate versions for these parts in existence.
Read more about this topic: Dashakumaracharita
Famous quotes containing the word text:
“I would define the poetic effect as the capacity that a text displays for continuing to generate different readings, without ever being completely consumed.”
—Umberto Eco (b. 1932)
“Great speeches have always had great soundbites. The problem now is that the young technicians who put together speeches are paying attention only to the soundbite, not to the text as a whole, not realizing that all great soundbites happen by accident, which is to say, all great soundbites are yielded up inevitably, as part of the natural expression of the text. They are part of the tapestry, they aren’t a little flower somebody sewed on.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)