Antoine Léonard de Chézy. 1822. "L'ermitage de Kandou (1)." Journal asiatique. July 1822. pp. 3-16.
The first article of JA is a brief translation of the story of Kaṇḍu and Pramlocā in Brahmapurāṇa 178.7-94. Chézy, who in 1815 became the first professor of Sanskrit at the Collège de France, prefaces the article with a deferential note, deprecating his own translation and praising the work of August Wilhelm von Schlegel (1767-1845), who was about to publish his own translation of this tale in the forthcoming third volume of Indische Bibliothek.
Chézy's article contains a flowery and rather touching introduction outlining the numerous similarities of classical Greek and Latin literature and the literature of India. The Upaniṣads use teacher-disciple conversations like Socratic dialogues; the unity of God is found in Brahmā; Vālmīki's ascent to Meru resembles Homer's ascent to Olympus; Jupiter's thunderbolt flashes forth just as Indra's; and Kāma and Cupid both fire arrows to inspire love. The story of Kaṇḍu and Pramlocā allows us to see this Indic Cupid in all his resplendent similarity.
