Yaḥyā Dawlatābādī’s Contribution to Persian Poetic Modernity

In 1912, Ya?yā Dawlatābādī composed two poems, the form of which diverged greatly from the canonical rules of tradition. Both poems were based on syllabic meters. Critics and historians of modern Persian literature have given these poems little consideration, and discussed them merely from the point of view of metrics. When compared to the great modernist endeavors in the poetry of the time, these pieces were judged severely, or altogether disavowed. This paper aims to show that, beyond mere metrical audacity, Ya?yā Dawlatābādī’s syllabic poems were in fact innovative. As the article argues, they were born out of the same quest for fresh poetic forms that induced contemporaneous modernists to create new, individualized poetic patterns.     

A Diplomatic Edition of the Introductory Section of Yamāri's Pramā(n)avārttikālankāra(t)īkā Supari(s)uddhā Folios 10a1-14b2

This is the second part of the diplomatic edition of Yamāri's Pramā.navārttikālatkāra.fīkā Suparisuddhā,the continuation of the part published beforeJ In the part published here,Yamāri explains Prajnākaragupta's two initial verses,i.e.,folios 10a1-12a3 on PVA 1,and 12a3-14b2 on PVA2.     

Mesopotamian or Iranian? A New Investigation on the Origin of the Goddess Anāhitā

Ar?dvī Sūrā Anāhitā, a popular Zoroastrian yazatā, is celebrated in Ya?t 5 (ābān Ya?t). Anāhitā is mostly believed to be an Indo-Iranian or Iranian deity who has absorbed influences from the creed and iconography of Ishtar, the Mesopotamian goddess, in the course of history. The type and the degree of such influences are still under debate. The paper places this goddess into the context of ancient Western Asia. Findings are presented in two sections: in the first section, the Indo-Iranian, Iranian and western Iranian origins of Anāhitā are questioned, and in the following section two points are clarified: first, the Mesopotamian origin for Anāhitā is more consistent with historical and archaeological evidence, and second, Anāhitā is the same as Annunit/Annunitum, Sippar—Amnamum’s goddess of war and victory and the avatar of Antu, who was added to the list of his royal patron deities as a result of political and military developments early in the reign of Artaxerxes II.     

A Diplomatic Edition of the Introductory Section of Yamāri's Pramā(n)avārttikāla(n)kāra(t)īkā Supari(s)uddhā——Folios 3a1-10a1

Introduction As it is well-known,Yamāri's Pramā(n)avārttikāla(n)kāra(t)īkā Supari(s)uddhā (hereafter PVATS)1 on Praj(n)ākaragupta's Pramā(n) avārttikāla(n)kāra (hereafter PVA) contains a lot of materials concerning various topics which are very important for historical reconstruction of the later development of the Buddhist epistemological system,especially the tradition beginning with Dharmakīrti's Pramā(n)avārttika (hereafter PV).