Devta Murtiprakaranam tatha Rupmandanam

Author(s): Upendramohan Sankhyatirtha
Publisher: Metropolitan Printing and Publishing House Limited

Page 49

( 37 ) dancing have similarly been glorifiedo1 although the artists and craftsmen themselves, curiously enough, occupy only degraded positions in society.
Thus the preservation of silpa Texts in the hands of the hereditary artists and craftsmen who were looked down upon, was beset with some difficulty. But mistakes and lapses in the Mss. are fortunately seldom, error's of commission, and not a few, may be due to inexpert scribes. Unless and until better readings, supported by substantial grounds, can be suggested, it is not allowable to reject altogether the only available texts which bear the stamp of tradition through a long succession of generations. It is, therefore, very necessary to sift very thoroughly the apparently corrupt and contradictory readings with the entire critical apparatus at our disposal.92
And when there is a great paucity of materials in the form of Mss., as is the case with the present text Devata-mūrtiPrakaraṇam, it is necessary to formulate some general laws, or, to deduce some principles for future guidance, in preparing a critical edition. Secondly, it is also very urgent to devise ways and means, for interpreting the texts of silpa, when all extraneous aids are so inaccessible.
91. Compare Nandikeśvara's Abhinayadarpanam (Critical Ed. of the Text with Introd., Transl., Notes and Illustrations. By Manomohan Ghosh., Cal. Skt. Series, No. V.), (Natyaprašamsā), śl. 76-11a (and Engl. Transl.).
For the Sangita-śāstra etc., also, it is possible to give numerous examples, of such eulogy.
92. It would not be, out of place, to compare here, for example, the immense help, which the present writer derived, by subjecting the apparently confusing readings to Epigraphic and Palaeographic Tests, elsewhere, while preparing his edition of the important Silpa Text : The Buddhapratimā-laksanam. The Sarasvati Bhavana Sanskrit Texts, No. 48. (Benares, 1933).
Out of a hopeless medley and confused jumble of data, careful scrutiny and repeated efforts enabled the present writer, to deduce a number of most important principles.