Prakrit Paingalam

SR No.: 020566
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Chandramohan Ghosh
Publisher: Calcutta
Publication Year: 1902
Total Pages: 727
Language: Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 12 MB

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PREFACE.
The name of Pingala has come down to us from hoary antiquity, enveloped in mythic darkness and legendary confusion. He is described as a sage (f:), a preceptor (), and again as a serpent(). A story is told of Garuda, the great King of birds and enemy of serpents, having once on a time come down upon, and threatened to devour him. But he, by his superior wit and genius, readily outwitted the bird; and escaped into the sea. Garuda, thus disappointed of his prey, retired from the scene, and acknowledged the serpent as his master (:). Vide Commentary (C), page 2.
Two works, that bear the name of Pingala, are now extant. One Chhandah-sūtram () is in Sanskrit, and has been published by the Society in Samvat () 1930; the other is in Prakrita, and is familiar to most of the Sanskrit scholars of the present day more from its extracts, quoted in other works, than a direct acquaintance with the original.
In preparing this edition of the Prakrita-Paingalam, the following MSS. have been carefully collated:
(A) No. 810 in the Library of the Sanskrit College, Calcutta. A very old manuscript, written in a bold and clear Devanágri character, complete, but without a commentary.
(B) Transcribed in 1690 Saka, in the Bengali character, by an ancestor of Pandit Bhagavati Charana Smrititírtha, and preserved in his Family Library, at Bogri Krishnanagar, near Garbetá, in the District of Midnápur. It is complete, but has no commentary. Vide p. 596.
(C) No. 522 in the Library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in Bengali character, complete, and illucidated by a commentary of Viswanatha Pañchánana, son of Vidyánivasa.
(D) No. 1370, Government MSS., in the same. A recent transcription in clear Devanágri, complete in Mátra vrittam (Part I), but altogether wanting in Varnavrittam (Part II).