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INTRODUCTION
xvil
to me. The following is a brief account as sent to me 'The Telugu Manuscript [Mt] is written on country paper and contains 65 pages of 23 lines each. The paper is wormeaten and the Manuscript is about 40 years old The Grantha Manuscript Mg] is on palm-leaf in 77 pages of 8 lines each The Manuscript is slightly injured and is about 100 years old. Both the MSS break off with Act V 46
3. Mr Copy of the MS. No 379 of the Palace Sarasvati Bhandar, Mysore. The original MS., as M Shama Rao, the officiating Inspector General informed me, Contains 39 leaves, with 8 lines on each page, 64 letters in each line, there are a few lacunae. It is about 100 years old and is fairly correct' Written in the Southern way of using - before a letter which is intended to be doubled Often writes adh for dbhu, 8 for h, v for 8, ru for 7h, tv for ts, and d for o. In Prakrit passages very often reads a for d or, It is of quite independent value In a few cases it agrees with Mt only. Thus both drop passages on p. 68, 1. 11, p 102, .1 6, p 107,1 10, p 108, 11. 2, 5-7, and both preserve a quite different reading on p. 68, l1 8-9. In a few cases in Act V it reads with K
4-7 T, T2, T,, T Copies of the MS No 10702 of the Tanjore Palace Library with collations from MS No 10703 (T) and with very occasional readings from the MSS, Nos 10704 and 10705 (T, and Te respectively) of the same collection The copy has been so very carelessly and incorrectly made that in many cases it was a problem to decipher it, and in a few instances it was very difficult to decide if a certain reading was to be attributed to one MS or the other. Consequently I thought it quite unsafe to depend upon the readings of the copy for incorporation in my text Still, to form an idea of the comparative values of their readings and their relationship to the other MSS of the drama, I have given their readings for the first Act A short description of the MSS is as follows 1
4 T, Contains 55 palm-leaves, 14" x 1" in size Written in Telugu characters with 5 or 6 lines to the page and on an average 55 letters to a line About 250 years old Complete up to V. 46 Begins éri-ganesāya namah.
5. T. Size 16'' x 1". Contains 48 palm-leaves Written in Telugu characters, with 5 or 6 lines to the page, and about 64 letters to the line Not quite so old as T. Ends with V. 46
6. Tg. Contains 36 palm-leaves, sized 13" x 1". Written in Grantha characters Sıx lines to the page and about 40 letters in a line Injured in many places. Act V is incomplete Has some affinities with T,
7. T. Very modern Consists of 18 palm-leaves of the size 16"x1" Written in Grantha characters, with 8 lines to the page and about 64 letters to the line. Contains only the first three Acts
1 See also p 170 of A Classified Index to Prepared for the Madras Government by the Sanskrit MSS. m the Palace at Tangore. A. O Burnell, London, 1880
