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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
space, obviously meant for an intended, but not excuted illustration, the third is fully covered with writing, and the fourth has only three and a half lines of writing at the top. The centres of pages 1b and 2a are each filled with a rhomb of red lines, each rhomb being subdivided by further red lines into 9 small rhombs, each of which contains one letter of the running text. The characters are ordinary Devanāgarī, 'Adhomātrā' being carried through, and 'Padimātrā regularly used for the 'ai' and 'au' only. The writing is in faded black ink, with occasional superimposed corrections in age-browned yellow pigment. The cyphers and some of the signs of punctuation as well as the ‘Mangalācaraṇa' formula (“Sri Bhuvaneśvaryai Namah” preceded by the usual diagram ) are overpainted with red ink, darkened by age. The manuscript has no colophon, except for the words “Iti Sri-Sankhare-Pārsvaprabhustotram” (sic!).
After st. 20 the words “Śrī-Sankheśvara-tīrtha-bhūṣaṇamaņe Śrīyuktapā" are clearly readable through the yellow pigment. This may be an indication that the manuscript was written by the poet himself, who first framed the beginning of this stanza in this way, and later rejected the phrase in favour of the present wording. The general correctness of the spelling of the whole text is in favour of such an assumption. This would greatly enhance the value of the manuscript which is, anyhow, the only record of this hymn known up till now, and, in view of the celebrity of its author, a find of no small literary importance.
5. The Tirthamālā-Caityavandana
According to Svetāmbara terminology, a 'caitya-vandana' is a short ritual performed (either separately in the temple, or as part of the ‘Āvaśyaka'-liturgy ) in praise of the 'caitya', i.e., the Jina Temple, and what the latter stands for. It consists in the recitation of liturgic formulas and hymns in Saṁskṛta, Prāksta, Apabhramśa, and Modern Indian Languages respectively, under adoption of prescribed postures, accompanied by the performance of a number of obeisances ( 'khamāsaņā ) and the ‘kāyotsarga' rite ( i.e., a certain
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