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OBSERVATIONS ON SOME VARIANTS IN HARSACARITA
Satya Vrat
Like most ancient texts of worth, the Harşacarita of Bāna has paid a navy price for its popularity in the tinkering it bas uodergone at the bands of its wide readership and an equally vast band of copyists. The well-eqipped scholars were keenly eager to foist their views in respect of i he arrangement of the text and in suggesting substitutes to Bāņa's ori. ginals or what was handed down to them as such. The scribes, on the other hand, smuggly incorporated these alternatives in the text, occasiopaly coining their own and relegating them to marginal notes, which, in course of time, melted into the text and elbowed out the original or other wise superior readings. This twin tendency, with the passage of time, bas resulted in giving rige to a formidable array of variants in the text of Harşacarita (Hc), with the scribes admitting what they thought best, according to their lights. While, with personal predilections frequently protruding in the discussion, it may not always be possible to strike Bāna's original readings, a thread bare evaluation of the crop of variants is bound to be rewarding. This is what is meant to be attempted here.
: The description of Sarasvati in chapter one, who, on the threshold
of youth, had io suffer an outrageous imprecation for her impulsive behaviour to the irascible sage, Durvāsas, is jotended to bring in releif, her physical charms. Her legs therein have been postulated as two finely chiselled columtis of the portal of a town, which, in different Mss, bas been assigned to Dharma and Cupid, alternatively. P. V. Kane has adopted the reading मदननगरतोरणद्वारविभ्रमं बिभ्राणा जंघाद्वितीयम् (P. 3)1, but he seems to prefer the variant gaat , which precisely is what is presenetd in the Bombay edition of Hc. (P. 8).2 The reading warraculo, opines Kane, would make Sarasvati the support of Dharna and thus merits preferences3 Sarasvati is surely the bastion and herself an embodiment of rightiousness. 1. Harşacarita, edited with text and notes, Delhi, 1973
Harşacarita, edited with the commentary Sanketa, by K.P. Parab.
Nirnaya Sāgar Press, Bombay, 1946, 3. Notes, Part I. P. 20-21.
Sambodhi XI-28
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