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INTRODUCTION
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The present translation and the text of the Setubandha.
The text of the Setubandha followed in the translation is that of the critical edition of Goldschmidt1 which, on the whole, presents the Prakrit original as explained by Ramadasa in his wellknown commentary on the poem.
The different commentaries on the poem, utilized for the present work, revealed, however, a large number of variant readings, which could be classified into several inter-related groups. There is a considerable number of readings, for instance, in which Ramadāsa of Rajasthan and Kulanatha of Bengal agree, differing herein from the South Indian commentators represented by Kṛṣṇavipra and others. There is, however, another group of readings in which Kulanatha, who is earlier than Ramadasa, agrees not with him, but with the Southern commentators, and nearly always the readings of this group yield a better meaning than those of Ramadasa. We shall presently speak about the recension followed by Ramadasa and its relation to the other recensions of the Setubandha; but so far as the translation is concerned, we have, in the interest of clarity and intelligibility, consistently followed Ramadasa's readings only where he agrees with Kulanatha, and in most other cases preferred those which Kulanatha has in common with the South Indian commentators.
1. Rāvaṇavaha oder Setubandha Prākṛt and Deutsch herausgegeben von Siegfried Goldschmidt. 1. Lieferung: Text, Index. Strassburg, 1880,
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