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is probably on a transcript of this transcript, or on a transcript of the Adyar
Library transcript (No. TR398) of this transcript (cf. Preface and p. XI).
Moreover, he is content with having a transcript only for the last two chapters.
Obviously he sees no gain in ascertaining the accuracy of De's 'second-hand' readings!
It seems that in India two definitions of the term 'critical edition' are current. One definition is the same as the one adumberated in the science of
textual criticism and assumed by most Western Indologists who have attempted text
-editing. The other definition seems to say that any edition based on more than
one manuscript and reporting variant readings here and there is critical. K's
editions of the Dhvanyalaka and the VJ are critical in this latter, 'weaker'
sense. There is no attempt in them to relate manuscripts or to establish objective
grounds for acceptance or rejection of readings. In the present VJ edition there
is not even a clear description of the text-sources. I had to piece together
several disjointed statements to understand roughly what materials were available
to K. Since some of these statements are unfortunately ambiguous (see note 5
above), I am not sure even now that I understand the bases of K's edition precisely.
Another blow set our normal expectations about a critical edition
se is
delivered by the procedure K has adopted for recording variant readings. Whether
an editor works with photocopies or transcripts, we expect him to give the preferred
text followed by an account of all variations or all significant variations (some
editors choose not to report the ungrammatical, metrically faulty, or nonsensical
readings). If K had three sources (photocopy of a transcript of the old Jaisalmer
ms., photocopy of the new Jaisalmer ms. leaves, and a direct or indirect transcript
of the Madras GOML transcript), as seems to have been the case, could he not have
constituted the best possible text with their help and recorded their divergences
or significant divergences from that text in a certain sequence?