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PREFACE
Kamsavaho of Rama Pāņivada, though listed by OPPERT and mentioned by AUFRECHT at the close of the last century, did not attract the attention of Prakrit scholars till a Ms. of it from the Madras Oriental Library was lately described in the Triennial Catalogue of Mss., Volume VI-Part I. Sanskrit, Madras 1935.
Rāma Pāṇivāda is a genuine poet with a confident grip over his expression; he has inherited the spirit of classical Sanskrit authors whose models he closely follows; though he belongs to the closing period of Prakrit literature, his work can be creditably ranked with the mediæval Prakrit poems; and his language is a fine specimen of literary Prakrit handled after closely studying the Sūtras of Prakrit grammars.
The detailed results of my study of the two Mss. that were accessible to me I have presented here. The constitution of the text was attended with many difficulties, but I have faithfully handled the material and never trespassed its limits. This limited material almost forced me to offer some emendations which are marked with asterisks in the text; and my suggestions on the Chaya are put in the foot-notes within square brackets. The inclusion of the Chaya and the addition of the English Translation and the critical and explanatory Notes, I hope, would go a long way to facilitate the understanding of the text. The Introduction is occupied with a critical study of the various aspects of Kamsavaho after describing the Ms. material and the method of text-constitution. The details about Rāma Pānivāda are critically set forth; and the source
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