[S']AKOONTALÁ

OR THE LOST RING

AN INDIAN DRAMA

TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE AND VERSE FROM THE SANSKRIT OF KÁLIDÁSA

BY

SIR MONIER MONIER-WILLIAMS, K.C.I.E. M.A., D.C.L., LL.D., PH.D. BODEN PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT, HON. FELLOW OF UNIVERSITY AND LATE FELLOW OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD

PREFACE TO THE EIGHTH EDITION.

The fact that the following translation (first published in 1855) of India's most celebrated drama has gone through seven editions, might reasonably have absolved me from the duty of revising it.