""Nalopakhyanam: Story of Nala"" by Monier-Williams is a scholarly edition and translation of the Nala episode from the Indian epic Mahabharata. The story centers on King Nala and his wife Damayanti, exploring themes of love, fate. virtue, and redemption. Nala, a noble king, loses his kingdom and is separated from Damayanti due to a gambling curse. After enduring trials, including disguises and wanderings, he regains his true self and reunites with her. Monier-Williams presents the Sanskrit text with English commentary, highlighting its poetic beauty and moral depth, making it accessible for Western audiences interested in Indian classical literature and philosophy.
THE Story of Nala, as told in the following pages, is an episode of the Mahabharata, one of the two great Epic poems of the Hindus, containing no less than 107,389 slokas or stanzas. It is extracted from the sixth chapter (fifty-third section) of the third Book or Vanaparvan. Like the rest of the Mahabharata, its authorship is attributed to Krishna-Dvaipayana, who is called Vyasa, because he arranged the Vedas. It is not to be supposed, however, that the Vedas and Mahabharata are really the work of the same author. The Vedas are many centuries older than the great Epic poem, and each is the composition of several authors. Probably an interval of several centuries separates the more ancient hymns of the Veda from the more modern; and a similar or perhaps greater separation may be observed between the older parts of the Mahabharata and the more modern interpolations.
By ascribing this work to Vyasa-who is also the reputed author of the Vedanta philosophy-it is merely implied that, at some time or other, order and sequence were given to what was before a mere congeries of distinct compositions by various authors. Part of the Maha-bharata is considered by some¹ to be as old as the fourth century B. с.; but all Hindu chronology is more or less conjectural; and it would be impossible to fix with certainty the date of the composition of any of the principal episodes. The Story of Nala is not part of the main plot of the poem, and probably belongs to a much earlier period of Indian history. The subject of the great Epic is the war between the Kurus or hundred sons of Dhritarashtra and their cousins the five sons of Pandu. But about this leading-thread are collected a vast number of ancient legends and traditions, under the weight of which it is often lost, if not altogether broken. In all Oriental books of fables it is common for the principal narrative to be interrupted by a series of stories within stories, loosely connected with the original theme, and often completely overlaying it. So it is with the Mahabharata. The episodes form by far the greater portion of the poem, and generally intervene to break the chain of the narrative, when the incidents are most stirring and the interest is most at its height. The war between the rival princes is doubtless founded on fact; and much valuable matter has been extracted from the narrative by Professor Lassen and other Sanskritists, in elucidation of the early history of India. According to the Vishnu-Purana, Dhrita-rashtra and Pandu were the sons of the widow of Vićitravirya by his half-brother Vyasa or Krishna-Dvaipayana.
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