Mahavira Charitam

Author(s): Todarmal Pandit
Publisher: University of Panjab Lahore

Page 6

PREFACE
the text; and all questions bearing on it have been more fully treated than in any other Sanskrit edition printed in India.
A glance at the table of contents will show how completely the matter contained in the text has been extracted It will be seen, however, that the contents of the volume do not include a translation of the play. This is my doing: though a complete and careful rendering was contained in the author's manuscript material, I considered that its inclusion in the book would be educationally harmful to the many Indian students likely to use it. On the other hand, the actual total contents will probably be considered excessive. Had I been editing the book myself, I should have made it much more concise in various respects. But I have purposely left it uncurtailed, because I wished it to be a model edition showing how a text ought to be edited by a competent scholar, even if he goes to excessive lengths in detail, because such a scholar is better qualified to exploit efficiently the text he is editing than anyone else, and to lessen the labour of those who utilize his edition.
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Pandit Todar Mall's work is careful and accurate. But even so, the labour of preparing the manuscript for the press has been immense The correction of slips of the pen, wrong Sandhi, erroneous references, and other inaccuracies has been very troublesome, as the writer, being dead, could no longer be consulted in cases of doubt. Much time has consequently been wasted. Most of this correction could only be done in the vacations, and then often in the midst of pressing work of my own. Now that it is concluded, I hope that the present volume may help to inaugurate in India a new era, in which all the best classical texts will be edited anew by Indian scholars with a critical training in method ensuring the production of texts that will furnish a sound basis for further research.
A. A. MACDONELL.
13 BELBROUGHTON ROAD,
OXFORD.
December 7, 1927.