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122
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(May, 1898.
ON THE SOUTH INDIAN RECENSION OF THE MAHABHARATA.
BY M. WINTERNITZ, PH.D.
(Continued from p. 101.) The discrepancies between the two recensions in the Parvasangraha are not so considerable as those in the Anukramani.
In the Anukramani (both in the Northern and in the Southern recensions) the whole of the Mahabharata is divided into the usual eighteen Parvans, as we find them in the Devanagari editions. It is strange that neither the Northern nor the Southern MSS. of the actual MaháThárata seem to bear ont this division into 18 Partans. We tipd, e. 9., 20 or 21 Parvans in the complete Devanagart MSS. of the Berlin and Oxford libraries.se Of the Southern MSS. Dr. Burnell states that they divide the poem into 24 Parvans, which is not qnite borne out by our Grantha MS, which, in the colophons, describes the Pauloma and Astika Parvans as subdivisions of the Adi-Parvan, so that we should have
(1) Adi Parvan :
(a) Paulonia (6) Astika
= Adi Parvan in the Nagari editions, (2) Sambhava Parvan while Burnell gives the three first Parpans as :
(1) Ádi Parvan (2) Ástika Parvan
Adi Parvan in the Nigarl editions. (3) Sambhava Partan A curious list of eighteen Parvans is that given in the passage (I. 1, 88-92) where the Mahábhárata is compared to a tree, of which the Saragrahadhyaya is the seed. The titles of the Parrans are given here as follows:
Pauloma, (2) Astika, (3) Sambhava, (4) Sabha, (6) Aranya, (6) Arani, (7). Virata, (8) Udyoga, (9) Bhishma, (10) Drona, (11) Karna, (12) Salya, (13) Stri, (14) Aishika (15) Santi, (16) Aśramedha, (17) Asramavåsika,
(18) Mausala. All this seems to show that eighteon was a traditional number for the larger divisions of the Mahabharata, but that this number was made up in very different ways by diaskeuastes at the different periods in the long history of the Mahabhárata text.
(1)
Pap)
# Boo A Holtamann, Das Mahabharata, III. 18 99.
