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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(OCTOBER, 1873.
MISCELLANEA. DR. BÜHLER'S REPORT ON SANSKRIT MSS. The Sarasvatipurâņa is a complete copy of the IN GUJARAT.
fragment noticed in last year's report. We extract the following from Dr. Bühler's Re- The list of manuscripts of poetical works conport for 1872-73 to the Director of Public Instruc. tains several original compositions and commention:
taries, which I have not seen mentioned elsewhere. Two new fascicles, Nos. III. and IV., of this The most important among them are the Vrihatwork have been published during the past year. kath of Kshemendra and the ParthaparAkrama. The materials collected in 1868-69 have now been The honour of the first discovery of the former exhausted. The issue of a supplementary number, work belongs to A. Burnell, Esq., M.O.S., not to giving addenda, indices, etc. is still required. This myself (as stated in the Indian Antiquary). But part, as well as a fascicle of the catalogue of Jaina the copy in my list appears to be the only other works, is still in preparation.
known manuscript besides that of Mr. Burnell, Several large collections of Jains books in and, though incomplete, it contains very importCambay, Limdi, and Ahmadâbâd have been partly ant portions of the original, which are wanting in catalogued. The extent and the condition of these that gentleman's manuscript. In an article in libraries provent me, however, from causing com. the Indian Antiquary I have pointed out how pleto lists of their contents to be made. Several great the importance of the Vsihatkatha is for of them contain upwards of 10,000 manuscripts, the history of the Indian collections of apologues. and sometimes hundreds of copies of one and the I may add that further researches have convinced same work are found in one library. Thus a me that it settles completely the question which library at Ahmadabad contains, according to the of the many versions of the Panchatantra is the statement of the cataloguing Shastri, four hundred original one, and that it allows us to ascercopies of the Avaśyakasútra. This assertion will tain the form of that work as it stood in the appear neither astonishing nor incredible if it is 4th century A.D. The Panchatantra, at that borne in mind that devout Jainas frequently give period, closely resembled the so-called Southern or bequeath large sums of money to the superin. redaction. tendents of monasteries for copying books, and The second work mentioned above, the Perthathat the multiplication of the sacred writings is paråkrama, is a drama of the class called Vyâyoga, held to be highly meritorious. To make complete a military piece celebrating the deeds of Arjuna. catalogues of such libraries is out of the question. Its author, the Yuvardja or heir-apparent Prah
In the course of 1873-74 I hope to finish the Adana, who lived under a king of the name of cxploration of two out of the three large Jaina Dhårdvarsha, is quoted by Sarangadhara, the libraries at Ahmadábad and of those at Vadhvan, author of a large collection of elegant extracts nnd to begin with the Bhandhårs at siddhapur made in the 14th century. Pathan. But I despair of finishing my task King Dharavarsha, from whose unnamed capital during either the current or the next following the mountain Nandivardbana could be seen, lived year.
probably in the 10th century A.D. The play is During the period under report I have bought important, as only one other Vyayoga was hitheror procured copies of 200 manuscripts, out of to known. The manuscript was found in a Jaina which number 75 belong to Brahmanical litera- library. ture and 123 to the Jainas, while 3 contain Among the works pertaining to the Shastras, the famous Gujarati prose-works. Among the Brah. Agniveśasahhith, one of the oldest works on medimanical works there are several novelties and cine, written in the Satra style, and the Vibrantal'are works, to which I beg to call special attention. vidy&vinoda, a work on veterinary surgery attri. Thus No. 2, the Bhishya on the Mantras, quoted buted to King Bhoja, deserve to be noted specially. in the Paraskara-grihya-Batra (L. IL. 8) of the The latter work is different from the short popular White Yajurveda, attempts a task which is usually treatise usually called Salihotra, and attributed neglected by the writers on Vedio ceremonies, likewise to the famous king of Malwa. and it is, at all events, highly interesting to see As regards the Jaina books, I stated already in what meaning a Brahminical writor attributed to last year's report that the purchases of 1872-73 the prayers which the Bhattas usually mutter promised to become highly important. My hopes without understanding or caring to understand in this respect have been completely fulfilled. I them. Among the Parfnas the Vahnipurans is bave obtained some very old palm-leaf manunew to me. It is not identical with the Agni- scripts, Nos. 78-80, 113-114, 128-132, which are all purana.
between five and six hundred years old. The
