Indian Antiquary Vol 27

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 72

68
28
T HE INDIAN ANTIQUARY,
MARCH, 1896.
The general result of a collation of the two recensions of the Adiparvan is according to Dr. Barnell "that the Nagari recension has about ten per cent. more blokas than the SonthIndian recension; these slokas generally form passages wanting in the last. Of the rest of the text, & considerable portion (numerous vv. ll. apart) is the same in both; the rest of the text presents ślokas found in the Devanagari recension, but with many vs. 11., and in a totally different order. The short chapters agree generally in both recensions." Dr. Barnell also states that the South-Indian recension of the Mahábhárata is divided into 24 books, the Adiparvan being divided into the Adi, Astika, and Sambhava Parrans, the Salya into Salya and Gala, the Sauptika into Sauptika, Aishika, and Visoka, and the Sántiparvan into the Rajadharm and Mokşadharma Parvans. The bingle books, again, differ considerably in the number of their chapters.
The Tanjore library is extremely rich in Mahábhárata MSS. - Dr. Barnell counted about 336 MSS. of the whole or parts of the poem - and it is very much to be regretted that all these treasures should be well nigh inaccessible to Enropean scholars. An edition of the Mahálhárata has been printed at Mndras, in Telugu characters, which in a very few cases seems to represent the South Indian recension, though on the whole it is based on the Calcutta edition and gives the text of Nilakantha. Tam indebted to Prof. Ludwig for some interesting communications about this edition. He has collated several thousand stanzas of the Madras edition with those of Calcutta and Bombay, and has come to the conclusion that the Madrag text is essentially the same as that of the Calcutta edition. Even misprints in the latter edition have found their way into the Madras edition. Yet, as Prof. Ludwig points ont, we find occasionally better readings in the Madras edition, than in the Devanagari editions. Dr. Lüders has pointed out to me a few passages in the Madras edition where it agrees with the text of our South-Indian MSS., though in other places it follows the Calcatta edition as closely as possible. The edition will be scarcely of any use for a critical restoration of the text of the Mahabhúrata. .
Another Telugu edition is mentioned in the Catalogue of the Library of the India Office, Vol. II, Part I. p. 122 sq., but as it contains Nilakantha's commentary it can hardly be expected to represent the South-Indian recension to any great extent. There are also a number of South Indian Mahabharata MSS. in the India Office Library which, however, have not yet been examined. As far as I am able to see from the published catalogues, the number of South Indian MSS. in the Continental libraries can be but small, and even in the Tanjore Library the number of Devanagari MSS. is much larger than that of South Indian MSS. proper.
Under these circumstances it is all the more satisfactory to know that the Royal Asiatic Society in London possesses a number of highly valuable Grantha and Malayalam MSS. containing a considerable portion of the South-Indian recension of the Mahabharata. • I have examined these MSS. for my catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. in the Royal Asiatic Society collections which I am preparing, and I venture to think that a few remarks on the South Indian recension of the Mahalhúrata, as represented by these M88., may be welcome to scholars interested in Mahabharata criticism - wbich, after all, will never lead to satisfactory results, as long as it is not based on sound text criticism.
The MSS. in question all belong to the Whish Collection, acquired by Mr. C. M. Whish in the early part of the present century
Prof. Jacobi who has also examined the Madras edition kindly infortna me that he has come to the same lo conclusions as Prof. Ludwig. Prof. Jacobt has 'motiovet made a concordance of the three editions from which it 2 appears that the Madras edition agrees, almost everywhere, math the numbers of verses and chapters found in thoa Calcutta edition. From tbe Introduction to the Sabha Parvasol. I, p. 276) it is evident that the Editor of the Madras edition looked upon Nakantha as his chief authority.
* Some of these MSS. are now being examined by Dr. Lüders?
"A rough list of these MSS. will be found in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1890, Vol. XXII. p. 805 r09g. My catalogue will, I hope, be finished in the course of this year.