Edward Byles Cowell’s translation of the Vikramacarita

Record summary

Edward Byles Cowell’s nineteenth-century work on the Vikramacarita helped make stories of King Vikramaditya available to English readers. The cycle contains marvels, magical travel and supernatural beings, themes sometimes repurposed in speculative accounts of ancient Indian aerial technology. It is a useful comparison lead because it demonstrates how courtly romance and wonder literature can be mistaken for technical testimony when extracted from genre and narrative context. Editions differ in textual arrangement, and the relevant motifs should be checked in Sanskrit and translation rather than in modern summaries.