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PREFACE
Padmabhuṣaṇa śri Dalsukhbhai Mālvania asked me, during my stay in Ahmedabad in February 1992, to prepare a Report about the studies and the edition of the Mahānisiha by Professors Walther Schubring, Frank-Richard Hamm and Jozef Deleu, as he would like it to be attached to the Mahānisiha being published by the Prakrit Text Society. The valuable contributions of Walther Schubring and F.-R. Hamm are in German and the scholars not conversant with this language could till now not benefit from them. The work of Albrecht Weber is available in English, and the contribution of Jozef Deleu is written in English, important parts of which have been, with his kind permission, included in the present Report.
A direct and complete translation of the German contributions would be of little use as they are distributed over a long span of time (1918-1963) and in three volumes and are penned by two scholars. They contain some repetitions, and some of the views expressed by Schubring in 1918 were not maintained by him in 1963. Moreover, such a translation would become too lengthy to find a place here. It was, hence, decided that the contributions of Weber and others should be arranged anew and edited in an English garb. Thus, 13-8 are based on their writings. The contents of the Mahānisiha I-VI as described by them are given in 13. Their analysis of its language and metres follows in 4-5, the parallels detected by Schubring and others are discussed in 16. These lead in 17 to the results achieved by them about the date and the authorship of the MNA. 18 contains conclusions drawn by Schubring and Deleu. In ¶9 some important passages which are often discussed have been collected. In 10 we reprint some reviews of the Studien zum Mahānisiha.
On my part, I have given full details in T1 about the publications concerned and in 12 about the manuscripts utilized. The Report concludes with my Epilogue. The concordance in our Appendix reveals the arrangement of the MNA into chapters and paragraphs etc. in the German edition in juxtaposition to that of the present edition in the hope that it will serve not only practical purposes.
In my difficult task I have been helped by Professors Colette Caillat, Nalini Balbir, and Klaus Bruhn. R. Grünendahl and others have kindly introduced me to the subtle technicalities of a "computer". My sincere thanks are due to all of them, specially to śri Dalsukhbhāi Mālvaṇiā.
This Report, wherein the main parts of his studies are incorporated, is dedicated respectfully to Prof. Dr. Jozef Deleu on the occasion of his 67th birthday.
krtam karaniyam.
Berlin, in May 1992.
Chandrabhal Tripathi.
