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PREFACE
(FIRST EDITION) We cannot afford to neglect any more the study of Prākrit language and literature, if we are really earnest about the study of Modern Indian Languages and social life of the common man in ancient India. We have had to pay heavily for the learned' man's neglect of Prakrit literature with the result that many important Prākrit works of literary value have been lost. The Vasudevacariya of Bhadrabāhu, Tararngavai of Padalipta, Harivijaya of Sarvasena, Madhumathavijaya of Vākpati, Vişamabānalilā of Anandavardhana, Vilāsavai Saţtaka of Märkandeya etc., to mention only a few, are mere names to us. It is for us to see now whether their MSS. would be discovered anywhere.
During the last few years I have been able to bring to light half a dozen Prakrit works, to edit them partly or fully and to assign to them their place in the history of Indian literature in general and Prākrit literature in particular. They were procured from the valuable MS.-collections from the South, especially Travancore. I have duly noticed them in my Essay on Prakrit Literature contributed to Shipley's Encyclopedia of Literature, New York 1946.
Being impressed by the excerpts from the Līlāvati in the Catalogue of MSS. in Jesalmere Bhandars and by references to it in Sanskrit works on poetics, I was yearning, almost from 1930, to get access to the Jaisalmer and Pattan MSS. of that poem. Despite the kindness of my friends in Gujarat and Marwar my attempts in this direction suffered many reverses and disappointments. During 1940-42 the University of Bombay assigned to me the Springer Research Scholarship to enable me to continue my studies in Prakrit language and literature, and I had nearly decided to go to Pattan to see the MS. of the Lilavati.
While editing the Bhatkathakośa of Harişena in Sanskrit for the Singhi Jain Series I came into closer contact with Sri Jinavijaya Muni. One day, by the middle of March 1940, at his residence at Matunga facing the King's Circle, Bombay, he talked to me about the photographs of the palm-leaf Ms. of the Kuvalayamála from Jaisalmer. It was a fitting context for me to request him to see if he can procure for me a photographic copy of the Jaisalmer MS. of the Lilāvati. He told me that it would not be possible to get any access to the Jaisalmer MS., but he can procure for me a copy of the Pattan Ms. In the light of my earlier disappointments, as I stepped down the staircase of his residence, I was wondering whether I might pass through the same old experiences. He, however, was quite earnest and really meant what he said. During September 1941 he sent to me a fine copy of the Pattan MS. which he had secured through the good offices of Sri Muni Punyavijayaji.
The Pattan copy (=P) being quite good, my desire to edit this poem grew more and more intense. I wanted at least one more Ms. to All its lacunae. My efforts to get access to a MS. said to have been in the possession of Mr. M. R. Kavi had no positive results. My friend Dr. Raghavan, Madras, knew how badly I was in need of another MS.; and during the last week of August 1942 he sent me the information that the Anupa Sanskrit Library, Bikaner, contained a Ms. of the Lilāvati with a Sanskrit commentary. To begin with, the prospects of getting a transcript or much less the MS. from Bikaner were not in any way bright. But through sheer good luck my friend Mr. Madhava Krishna Sarma took charge of the Curatorship of that Library in November '42; and almost with a personal interest he secured not only the permission of the Bikaner Government to give me a transcript but also made necessary arrangements to get one prepared through a copyist, not easily available ordinarily.
As I was waiting for the copy from Bikaner, there was another lucky develop ment. Sri Jinavijayajī, who was holding his long-planned literary expedition to Marwar in abeyance for years together, reached Jaisalmer by the middle of December 1942 and wired to me to despatch the Pattan copy to him, so that the variants
in the poras, knew. he sent. Lilavati
ars together, reachis long-planned another lucky
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