On February 18, 1898, Professor Pischel, in reply to a suggestion that he should ndertake a revision of his first edition (of 1877) of Kalidasa's Sakuntala, wrote to me from Halle as follows: [hre Anfrage wegen der Sakuntala kan ich mur mit einen freudigen ,Ja“ beantworten. 5s ist der sethnlichste Wunsch meines Lebems, eine korrekte Ausgabe u machen, und ich hoffe, alte Manuskripte aus Calcutta 2u erhaltern Mit der Pralkritgrammatik hoffe ich um Pfngsten herum fertig 2u werden. Dan will ich gleich mach Manuskripten schreibeen und dan zur Neu bearbeitung schreiten The Prakrit grammar appeared in 19००. In the spring of 19०2 he died in India just after Christmas of 19०8. His temure of the Berlin chair was all too brief, something over six years, and those years were filled mot only with the very distracting business-preparations of the Prussian Expedition to Chinese Turkestan, but also with the labor of winning from the rich finds that were brought back, the splendid results that his learning and insight were able to win. In spite of these diff culties, he somehow managed to embody his revision of the Sakuntal in an interleaved copy of his first edition, and it is from that copy that the text of this second edition has been printed. Finally came the appointment from the Government of India to deliver a course of lectures on Prakrit at the University of Calcutta before an audience of Hindu scholars - an extraordinary distinction , and for Pischel a fatal one. After Pischel's death, Professor Brmst Windisch suggested that the conduct of the printing be entrusted to our common friend, Professor Carl Cappeller of ]ena. This work of pietas Professor Cappeller most kindly undertook, and for the proofs of the text he has had the help of our colleagues, Professors Geldner ( e T० Professor Cappeller's learning and pains we are chiefy indebted (apart from our debt to Pische) for whatever new merits this edition may show . His were the laborious tasks of preparing for press the ,Sanskrit Euivalents of the Prakrit Words“ (pages 11 1-147), and of sifting the Wariants and of recasting the report of those worth reporting (pages 1 51-249), and of making the Table of Divergences of this [Digitized by (Google
