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N. M. KANSARA
SAMBODHI
general survey of the manuscripts, features of the constituted text, principles adopted for the Critical Edition, the Bhāgavata among the Mahāpurānas, the subject matter of the first three Skandhas, and a critical survey of the contents of the early Skandhas, also. After acknowledgements, he has given a concordance of the Critical Edition with the Kumbhakonam, Bombay, Gorakhpur and Nadiad Editions. At the beginning of each Skandha, a list of the contents gives the details of the Adhyāyas, and topics of each of the Skandhas, thus the First Skandha has eighteen Adhyāyas, the Second Skandha has ten Adhyāyas and Third Skandhas has thirty-three Adhyāyas. Towards the end of the book, the editor had given critical notes one each verse of each Adhyāya of each of the three Skandhas included in this volume. These notes sometimes give the synonyms of particular words by way of explanation, and sometimes add explanatory details about geographical places, or mythological characters.
In his observations on a critical scrutiny of the Mss. copied in different regional scripts, the editor notes that they yield no different recensions as noticed in the case of two Great Epics. Only the general impression that the Bhāgavata may be classified into versions, especially North-Western, North-Eastern, Northern and Southern ones is here confirmed and corroborated. And, as far as the early Skandhas (i.e. I, II and III) are concerned, the interpolations consist of only one, two or a few more lines. They occur more frequently in the Southern Version. However, they are not infrequently also shared by the rest of the versions. But no entire Adhyāyas are found to be inserted or omitted in any of the Mss. as far as these early Skandhas are concerned. N.M.K.
The Bhagavata Critical Edition, Volume iv, Containing The Tenth Skandha is critically edited by the celebrated Professor Dr. Keshavram K. Shastree (Bambhaņiā), who is well-known among the scholars in Gujarat by his endearing nomenclature 'KEKĀ'. This volume contains the critically constituted text of the Tenth Skandha along with the variant readings given below the text in footnotes on respective pages. Minor interpolations are noted in the footnotes, while long interpolated passages have been given at the end in the Appendices. The learned editor has contributed a scholarly Introduction for this volume and provided a table of concordance and critical notes.
In his introduction, Prof. Shastree has given a detailed description of the Mss. he has utilised for collating the variant readings and compiling the critical text. He has based this edition on 36 so far available Mss., out of which eleven belong to the Northern Version, thirteen to the Devanāgari-Mid-Western Version,
