Nala and Dayamanti and Other Poems. Translated from the Sanskrit into English verse, with Mythological and Critical Notes.

Oxford: D. A. Talboys, 1835. First separate edition in English. Quarto. 146 pp. Publisher's mustard cloth with printed paper spine label. Extremities with some wear, paper label somewhat soiled (though still legible), tips bruised. Nonetheless, a very good, clean and complete copy of this scarce translation in the publisher's binding. No copies at auction (according to RBH).The love story of Nala and Damayanti is part (Vana Parva) of the great Hindu epic, the Mahabharata. It is a love story and is quite complex with Kali making an appearance but it ends on a happy note. The Mahabharata itself was translated into English just one year prior though for all practical purposes this is the first portion of it to become available to the reading public in England. Henry Hart Milman was an English historian and ecclesiastic. The son of Baronet, he was educated at Oxford and had a brillan career. He won the Newdigate prize with a poem on the Apollo Belvidere in 1812, was elected a fellow of Brasenose in 1814, and in 1816 won the English essay prize with his Comparative Estimate of Sculpture and Painting. In 1816 he was ordained, and two years later became parish priest of St Mary's, Reading. In 1821 Milman was elected professor of poetry at Oxford; and in 1827 he delivered the Bampton lectures on The character and conduct of the Apostles considered as an evidence of Christianity. In 1835, Sir Robert Peel made him Rector of St Margaret's, Westminster, and Canon of Westminster, and in 1849 he became Dean of St Paul's. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1864. Milman was buried in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral, where his grave was marked by an elaborate tomb.