Cintamani Sarnika Of Dasabala

Author(s): Dharmanand Kosambi
Publisher: D D Kosambi

Page 3

INTRODUCTION
DY
The work was first known through Theodor Aufrecht's catalogue of Bodleian Sanskrit MSS. (viii, Oxford, 1864) p. 327 6, No. 776. Aufrecht's meticulous report that the author was a Buddhist who wrote during the reign of Bhoja of Dhārā, with a date probably saka 977, went unheeded in the absence of systematic Indian epigraphy, which was then just beginning. A second MS. of the work was found by P. K. Gode at the Rājāpūr Pāțhaśālā; it was he who suggested the editing of the text. His photographs and the microfilm supplied by the Bodleian library form the basis of the text. The Rājāpūr codex is older, being dated āṣādha śuddha 2 of samyat 1558,1 and by far the more intelligently transcribed, but lacunary, having lost its initial folio, and being in a badly wormeaten condition. The Oxford copy is dated kārttika suddha 4, of samvat 1596,2 and in good condition, though the scribe was a professional who didn't know what he was copying. Both undoubtedly derive from the same source, as they show the same omissions, identical mislections, and reduplications. It further seems to me that the Oxford codex is a direct copy of the Rājāpūr MS. for the scribe repeats some slips of the other, without noticing the minute cancellation marks above the wrong letters; also, in 5. 3, the final devowelizing stroke on the preceding prthak has been mistaken to be a mätrā on the line below, to give the word aisa, which is actually the appearance of the Rājāpūr copy at a hasty glance. Unless the Rājāpūr scribe managed to duplicate the common model letter for letter and line for line, the Oxford copyist must have been directly influenced by him.
Thus, these two copies supplement each other only to the extent of giving a single somewhat corrupt manuscript. The text has necessarily to be emended, which was done with the
1. Colophon-Rājāpūr Ms.
श्री ।। शुभं भवतु ॥ स्वस्ति श्री संवत् १५५८ वर्षे आषाढ शुदि २ गुरौ लिखितोऽयं ज्योतिष-दशबलसमा-मिति ॥ शिवमस्तु सर्वजगतः ॥ छ ॥ छ । 11 3 11 mittag Il sit II CĪTEITA 7A: 11 st ll J 11 3 11 sit 11
[by a later hand] इदं पुस्तकं भूगोळ्युपनामक-सदाशिवोपाध्यायात्मज-परमानंदस्य ॥ 2. Oxford Ms.: __ स्वस्ति श्री संवत् १५९६ वर्षे कार्तिग शुदि ४ चतुथी वारधे ॥ रा० aralelo ateft 11