The Pradyumna-Prabhavati legend in Nepal: A study of the Hindu myth of the draining of the Nepal Valley

Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GmbH, 1987. First edition, 8vo, pp. viii, 398; printed from typescript; original printed gray wrappers; fine. Issued as no. 32 in the publisher's Alt- und Neu- Indische Studien herausgegeben vom Seminar für Kultur und Geschichte Indies an der Universität Hamburg. "It is a geologically-proven fact that the Kathmandu Valley, which is still often known as the "Nepal Valley", or simply as "Nepal", was once filled by a lake. The mythological account of the draining of the Valley which is most widely-known today is the one which is related in the Buddhist Syvambhü Purana, according to which the Bodhisattva Manjuśri (truncated) cut through the southern rim of the Valley with his sword at Cobhär. Indeed, this legend has now become established as the mythological explanation of the beginning of the Valley's habitation and unique cultural history" (Cambridge University Press). (Inventory #: 69155)