Mahavira Charitam

SR No.: 010406
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Todarmal Pandit
Publisher: University of Panjab Lahore
Publication Year: 1928
Total Pages: 407
Language: Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 34 MB

Page 9

INTRODUCTION
1
GENERAL ACCOUNT OF THE MAHĀVĪRA-CARITA MSS. AND
THEIR MUTUAL RELATIONSHIP.
For the purposes of the present text of the Mahāvīra-careta I have been able to collate eighteen MSS. Four of these (T, T, T, T) have been consulted only for the first Act, for the copy supplied to me was hopelessly bad, and I could not, therefore, rely much upon its readings. Among the rest, six (K, E, W, Sc, I., Mr) are complete, four (I/, Bo, Alw, Md) end with the fifth Act, three (Cu, Mt, Mg) break off with the 46th verse of the fifth Act, while B was available only for the last two Acts and a poition of Act V, commencing with V. 60 Taking into account the affinities of their readings, the MSS can be divided into two clear Groups, the Northern and the Southern It is, moreover, remarkable that this grouping is also corroborated by the scripts in which these MSS have been written Thus all the MSS of the Southern Group are written either in Telugu (Mt, T,, T) or in Grantha characters (Mg, Mr, T., T.), while those of the Northern Group are (with the exception of K, which is in Sāradā characters) written in the Devanāgarī script. Eleven MSS belong to the Northern and seven to the Southern Group. The Northern has four subdivisions.
1 I, and Bo. I, is dated samvat A.D. 1665=1609, and has an independent value, some of its readings being of great worth The beginning- and the end-colophons in Bo are identical with those in I, Moreover Bo is the only MS which, like I, repeats verse V. 39 with different readings.
2. W, Sc, and I, These MSS are about 50 to 100 years old and are of very little value. Sc occupies a middle position, for while, on the one hand, it agrees with Win giving the same chāyā of the Prākrit passages, repeating also its wrong chāyā, it agrees, on the other, with I, in giving the same wrong numbers to verses in Acts VI and VII Again, with regard to the readings of the text, at betrays a similar tendency, sometimes agreeing with one and sometimes with the other.
3. Alw and Md. Both are undoubtedly copies of the same original. It is in very rare cases that the copies of both supplied to me show a difference of reading, and when they do, it is to be attributed either