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Herder and India: The Genesis of a Mythical Image

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Leslie Willson
Leslie Willson*
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin 12
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Extract

The lines above, where Herder refers to the chief figures in the play Sakuntala, by the Sanskrit dramatist Kalidasa, identify India as a holy land for which he yearns. These lines might serve as a motto to characterize his attitude toward India, an attitude of extreme reverence and adulation which resulted finally in the formulation of a mythical image. The term “mythical image” implies an imaginative conception of India, and one can trace the development of such an image in the fancy of Herder.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 70 , Issue 5 , December 1955 , pp. 1049 - 1058
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1955

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References

page 1049 note 1 Herder references are to volume and page of his Sämtliche Werke, ed. Bernhard Suphan (Leipzig, 1877–1913); lines from a poem found in his Nacldaβ, xxix, 665–666.

page 1049 note 2 Johannes Grundmann, Die geographischen und völkerkundlichen Quellen und Anschau- ungen in Herders “Ideen zur Geschichte der Menschlteil” (diss. Leipzig, 1900), p. 3.

page 1049 note 3 Trans. The Bhagvat-Geeta, or Dialogues of Kreeshna and Arjoon (London, 1785); The Heetopades of Veeshnoo-Sarma (Bath, 1787); The Story of Dooshwanta and Sakoontala (London, 1795).

page 1049 note 4 “Sacontalá” (1789), in Works (London, 1799), pp. 201–312.

page 1049 note 5 Eduard Ives, Reisen nach Indien und Persien, trans. Christian Willhelm Dohm (Leipzig, 1774), in Dohm's “Zusätze des Uebersetzers,” pp. 41–42. 6 Œuvres complètes (Paris, 1878), xi, 158.

page 1049 note 7 Merkwûrdige hislorische Nachrichlen von Hindostan und Bengdlen, trans. J. F. Kleucker (Leipzig, 1778), pp. 266 f.

page 1049 note 8 Alexander Dow, trans. The History of Hindostan [by Muhammad Käsim ibn Firishtah], 3rd ed. (Dublin, 1792).

page 1049 note 9 Voyages de Franĉois Bernier (Amsterdam, 1699). 10 Travels in Europe, Asia and Africa (London, 1782).

page 1049 note 11 Paul Th. Hoffmann, Der indische and der dsutsche Geisl von Herder bis zur Romantik (diss. Tubingen, 1915), pp. 44–46.

page 1049 note 12 De Open-Deure tot net Verborgen Heydendom, Linschoten-Vereeniging, x, ed. W. Caland ('S-Gravenhage, 1915); German edition: Of ne Tkiirzu dem verborgenen Heydenthum (Numberg, 1663).

page 1049 note 13 See his Sämmtliche Schriften (Leipzig, 1843), ix.