Note on Hemchandras Abhidhanchintamani and Sanskrit Karmavati

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: ZZ_Anusandhan

Page 3

फेब्रुआरी २०११
१६९
here used” (p. 318 n. 2). A lithographed edition of the Abhidhānacintāmaņi was prepared under the supervision of Colebrooke and published in Calcutta as early as 1807 AD. The bibliographical details are given in the form of three Sanskrit verses on the title page:
sanekārthanāmamālatmakaḥ koşa-varaḥ śubhaḥ Hemacandra-praņitābhidhānacintāmaņir maṇiḥ //1// nagare Kalikattâkhye Kolavrūk-sāhavajnayā śriVidyākaramiśreņa krta-sūci-samanvitaḥ 1/21/ Veda-rttv-așța-kalānātha-sammite Vikramābdake mudrākṣarena vipreņa Vāvūrāmeņa lekhitaḥ //3//
The date is indicated in the Indian fashion, using the Vikrama era and a chronogram : VS 1864. As announced here, the book contains two of Hemacandra's lexicons, the Abhidhānacintāmaņi (pp. 1-120) and the Anekāarthasamgraha (pp. 1-140), preceded by an index (pp. 1-96) prepared by Vidyākaramiśra and followed by Corrigenda (pp. 1-4+1).3
This first edition, known as “Calcutta edition”, was uncritical and deprived of clues and tools necessary to communicate the value of Hemacandra's work. It was superseded 40 years later by the critical edition jointly provided by Otto Böhtlingk (1815-1904) and Charles Rieu (1820-1902):4
3. I consulted the copy kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Département des manuscrits orientaux (shelfmark: Sanscrit 1049), purchased at Mirzapur, 16 Oct. 1816. 4. Charles Rieu was a Swiss orientalist, who studied in Bonn and then went to St. Petersburg where he developed a friendship with Otto Böhtlingk. The Preface of the Abhidhānacintāmaņi explains the genesis of their common project: Böhtlingk was puzzled by the Calcutta edition of the text, and Rieu, who was in England, wished to prepare a new edition. He suggested that they work on it jointly. Later on, Rieu worked in the manuscript section of the British Museum, London, as professor of Persian and Arabic in University College London and as Adams-Professor in Cambridge (see Otto Böhtlingk, Briefe zum Petersburger Wörterbuch, Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden, 2007, p. 723 n. 6).