The History of Indian Literature c9.100

c9.100

²²³ From Benfey's researches, it appears that, in this recension, the original text, which presumably rested on a Buddhistic basis, underwent very important changes, so that, curiously enough, a German translation made in the last quarter of the fifteenth century from a Latin rendering, which in its turn was based upon a Hebrew version, represents the ancient text more faithfully than its existing Sanskrit form does. Of this, for the rest, two or more other recensions are extant; see *I. Str.*, ii. 166. For the 14th chap. of the Kalíla wa Dimna, no Indian original had been known to exist; but quite recently a Tibetan translation of this original has been discovered by Anton Schiefner; see his *Bharatae Responsa*, St. Petersburg, 1875. On a newly discovered ancient Syriac translation of the groundwork of the Pañcha-tantra, made, it is supposed, either from the Pahlaví or from the Sanskrit itself, see Benfey in the *Augsburger Allg. Zeit.* for July 12, 1871.