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Art and Technique of Presentation of Manuscripts
969
part on birdsbank, palm-leaf and paper. Their early perishability in camparison with the material like stone is well-known. Hence, there is a need for protection against wear and tear of the mass concerned. The simple but a delicate means of preservation of a ms/ mss against wear and tear once also as a remedy to satisfy the desire and/or demand of other persons to how these texts was to have these ms/mss copied manually. It is well-known that some years back there was a practice of supporting a transcript when the mass could not be lent outside the premises of the mass-library. Now the matters have changed. Puranas refer is the donation of transcripts of various Punayas. The Matsya-Punya (ch. 53) recommends the copynis of various Puranas and their gift to the deserving ones and this act was calculated to earn religious merit. Rajasekhara, the author of the Kavyamimamsa, is quite alive to the problem of preservation and multiplication of an antograph or a mass i.e. to have more transcript and he says categorically, “Prabandham aneka darsa gatani kunyat” (Kavya Mimamsa. Gos. No. 1, p. 53) i.e.” The poet should prepare several transcripts or get them prepared of his compsitan as soon as the final touches have been given, under these circumstances more antrographs or transcripts are available and chances of computer are extremely far.
Some ancient unknown writers have suggested the following measures for the protection and preservation of mass and they deserve to be applied mutatis mutandis even in modern times:
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