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Vol. XXI, 1997
REVIEWS
157
editions of the Mahābhārata was undertaken and successfully completed by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute of Poona. This scholarly achievement inspired the undertaking of preparing a critical edition of the Vālmīki Rāmāyana by the Oriental Institute of Baroda. And on completion of this project successfully, this institute took up the projects of preparing the critical editions of Visnupurāna and other Puranas. This gave an impetus to the B. J. Institute of Learning and Research to aspire to prepare a critical edition of the Bhāgavata Purāna, which is a valuable source-work and is again the most popular among the Purānas. The celebrated Vishnudev Sankaleshwar Pandit and Prof. Rasiklal Parikh shouldered the initial responsibilities of locating various versions of the work, and of planning the entire project of the critical edition. Dr. Parikh was then, in 1955, the Director of the B. J. Institute. In November 1961, Prof. Parikh and Prof. Dolarray R. Mankad were appointed as General Editors of the project. In 1970, after the sad demise of Prof. Mankad, Dr. Hariprasad G. Shastri succeeded as one of the General Editors. Meanwhile the Institute pursued to request the Union Government for grant, though unsuccessfully. In 1985, fortunately the Government of Gujarat sanctioned the necessary grant, and the Institute appointed Prof. Dr. Keshavprasad K. Shastri, Dr. H. G. Shastri and Dr. Bharatiben K. Shelat as General Editors. Then with due appointed of necessary personnel the work of noting the variant readings from MSS attained considerable progress in 1988. It was planned to publish the critical edition in four volumes, comprising three Skandhas each.
This volume contains the critical text of the Skandhas I, II and III, along with the variant readings and interpolated passages noted in the critical apparatus, as also in the footnotes given below the critical text on respective pages. In the Introduction, Dr. Shastri has given a detailed description of the manuscripts utilized for collating the variants and the critical text. The manuscripts pertain to the Sāradā Version, the Nepali Version, the Maithalī Version, the Bengali Version, the Devanagari Version, the Nandināgarī Version, the Telugu Version, the Kannada Version, the Grantha Version and the Malayālam Version. They are thirty-eight in all. Over and above these Mss., he has given a list of testimonia or aids of a subsidiary character available for the Bhāgavata, in the form of commentaries, printed editions and abstract expositions or epitomes. These are twelve, seven and three, respectively. Apart from a detailed discussion of each of the above mentioned Mss., and testimonia, the editor has discussed relevant topics like the renderings and translations,
