Kalpadru Kosh Vol 01

Author(s): Kesava, Ramavatara Sarma
Publisher: Oriental Institute

Page 6

PREFACE
For some time past I knew of the existence of the Kalpadrukośa of Keśava and was curious to look over the book. Meanwhile Keśavasvāmin's Nānārthārņavasanksepa was published by Pt. Ganapati Šāstrin at Trivandrum. The elaborate researches embodied in his text by Keśavasvāmin and its fulness and vast scope made me think that Kalpadru was probably a synonymous supplement to this great homonymous work either by the same or a different hand and that, if so, it was a very valuable lexicon. My curiosity knew no bounds now and I wrote to the editor enquiring whether he had seen a MS of the Kalpadru. The Šāstrin was silent for years and I continued my own search for the book. About six years ago, Pt. Gaurīnātha Pāthaka, one of my Ācārya students of the College of Oriental Learning in the Benares Hindu University, supplied me with a MS of the Kalpadru which, he says, he had from Pt. Sivadatta of Lahore. This MS came perhaps originally from Kashmir and is referred to in the footnotes as K. It is a well-preserved and beautifully and closely written MS and so far as I ain aware is the best copy of the Kalpadru in existence. Pt. Gopinātha Kavirāja, my learned and esteemed friend, then Librarian of the Sarasvati Bhavana, Sanskrit College, Benares, very kindly supplied me with another MS from the Government collection of books at Benares. This MS is here referred to as C. When I had made my own copy with the help of these two MSS I talked one day to my friend Mr. K. P. Jayaswal about its publication. He at once wrote to Dr. B. Bhattāchārya, Director, Oriental Institute, Baroda, who has been pleased to supply