Samipya 2000 Vol 17 Ank 03 04

SR No.: 535817
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhartiben Shelat, R T Savalia
Publisher: Bholabhai Jeshingbhai Adhyayan Sanshodhan Vidyabhavan
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 84
Language: Gujarati
Classification: Magazine, India_Samipya, & India
File Size: 8 MB

Page 22

Acharya Shri Kailassagarsun Gyanmandir
The Critical Edition of the Bhāgavata
H. G. Shastri* The Great Epics and the Purāṇas have an outstanding impact on the socioreligious life of the people of ancient India. But their early printed editions contain numerous passages which were incorporated therein in course of time. Sometimes they cover not only numerous verses but even sereval adhyāyas. Moreover, the early editions printed in different regions diverge considerably from one another in their contents. This fact necessiated a collation of the divergent versions discerned in the MSS of the different regions and discrimination between common verses and interpolated verses. The collation formed a solid basis for the critical edition of the texts, but it required a well-organised planning, the aequisition of select MSS representing the different versions and a team of trained collators familiar with the scripts of the different regions. The critical edition could be reliably prepared by outstanding scholars of Sanskrit and published by the provision of enormous funds.
The initiative was taken by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, which undertook the enormous task of preparing and publishing a critical edition of the Mahābhārata. The bulky text contained about 1,00,000 verses and involved several recensions and versions. The labourous task of constituting the text based on select original readings and the relegation of the variant readings and interpolated passages in corresponding foot-notes containing references to the different sources of the divergent readings took a pretty long period of about three decades for preparing and publishing the critical edition of the Mahābhārata. But it paved an ideal system for preparing a critical edition scientifically. Subsequently the institute also prepared a critical edition of Harivaṁsa which represents a Khila (supplement) of the Mahābhārata. It recognised only five adhyāyas out of 135 adhyāyas of its third section given in the early editions.
The Oriental Institute of M. S. University of Baroda undertook a similar project for preparing and publishing the critical edition of the Rāmāyaṇa.
Like the Great Epics the Purāņas also necessiated similar projects for critical editions. The Kashi Raj Trust of Varanasi prepared and published critical editions of a few select Purānas, but they were based on the collation of only a few MSS comparatively.
The B. J. Institute of Learning and Research, Ahmedabad was aspiring for
VULLIONS.
• Retd. Director, B.J. Institute, Ahmedabad.
The Critical Edition of the Bhagavata]