Indian Antiquary Vol 59

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 21

JANUARY, 19301
ON THE TEXT OF THE MAHAVIRACARITA
"street" is met at right angles by a series of chabilirds in parallel lines, forming terraces along the slope of the hill. Near where the two "streets" meet there is a well-finished stone block about 16 feet long by 2 feet square. The tradition of this site has been preserved. The shepherd informed me that it was where the ancient emperors pitched their camp in the rains. To Dr. E. H. Hunt, later, he quoted the emperor Yunas (Yunas-Yunân); a local version of Alau'd-din's princely name, also given by Grant Duff. Dr. Hunt found here & fragment of Celadon ware of the kind imported into India up to the end of the Mughal period, usually and significantly known as "Ghori Ware."
ON THE TEXT OF THE MAHAVIRACARITA.
BY DR. 8. K. DE. SINCE Dr. Hertel published, in January 1924, his striking monograph on the textual pro·blems connected with the Mahaviracarita, much material on the subject has been made accessible by Todar Mall's recent edition of the drama published by the University of the Panjab. It will not, therefore, be out of place to reopen the question and oonsider it in the light of the fresh data supplied by this new edition of the text. .
Dr. Hertel very pertinently remarked that we did not possess any truly oritioaledition of the Mahdviracarita, and that no edition gave even the soantiest critical material for settling the text. This reproach has now been happily removed by Todar Mall's edition, which is based upon ample manuscript material (18 Northern and Southern MSS.), and which gives very full oritical apparatus.
The editio princeps of F.H. Trithen, published in London in 1848, was based on only three MSS., belonging to the India Office and the Bodleian, which have also been used by Todar Mall and marked by him as I, I, and W, respectively. The first of these MSS. is fairly old, being dated in samvat 1665=1609 A.D.; but the other two are comparatively modern, one being dated in samoat 1857=1801 A.D., and the other conjeotured to have been copied for Wilson about 1820 A.D. Trithen's edition, however, gives no variant readings, nor any account of the MSS., but it admits collation of doubtful passages with their reproductions in Alamkara literature. The next Calcutta edition of Taránátha Tarkavacaspati with his occasional but very scanty glosses, published in 1857, was reprinted (without mention of the fact) by his son, and is thus substantially the same as the Calcutta edition of Jivananda Vidyasagara, published in 1873. Taranatha appears to have used Trithen's edition, which he refers to in his Bengali preface as "the text printed in England," but he also consulteda MS. of the drama which existed in the Calcutta Sanskrit College Library and which is presumably the same as the manusoript Sc of Todar Mall, complete in seven Acts. Nothing, however, is said about the extent and oharacter of the MS. used, nor are any variant readings noted. Anundaram Borooah's edition, published in Calcutta in 1877 with a Sanskrit commentary of his own, is based on noindependent MS. material, but is prepared ohiefly with the help of the editions of Trithen and Taranátha, as well as with the aid of readings of quoted passages in Alamkera works; but this edition makes the first attempt at a systematic and running interpretation of the text in its Sanskrit commentary. The text in all these editions is frankly eclectic, butit follows one and the same
1 Entitled "A Note on Bhavabhati and VAkpatirkja" in Asia Major I, 1, pp. 1-9.
> Edited with critical apparatus, introduction and notes by the late Todar Mall, Government of India Sanskrit Scholar at Oxford. Revised and prepared for the Press by Prof. A. A. Macdonoll. Panjab University Oriental Publications, Oxford University Press, 1928. It is remarkable that although this edition is published in a revised form in 1928, no reference is made to Dr. Hertel's important article referred to above.
*I=India Office no. 1140-4136 (Eggeling's Catalogue, pt. vii, p. 1681); Ig=India Office no. 943-4135 (Ergoling, loc. cit.): W=Bodleian MS, no. 200 (Wilson MS.2296) noticed in Aufrecht's Bodleian Catalogue, p. 136.
• No dato is given in the MS. itself, but see Todar Mall, p. xiv, and Hertol, p. 3.
No. 481-242 in the Descriptive Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. in the Library of the CalcuttaSanskrit College, pt. vi, p. 145. It is a modern copy made noar Caloutta for one Philla-sAhaba' and dated in comat 1879_1823 A.D.
6 Taranatha remarks in his Bengali proface that many passages of the text are obmoure to him and he has not ventured to write glosses on them.