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INTRODUCTION
95
Devarāta The extracts from the commentary of Devarāta alias Subrahmanya are given from a transcript of an incomplete Devanāgari ms. preserved in the Oriental Mss. Library, Madras. As far as can be judged from the colophon at the end of Cantos 1 and 2, the Commentary, called Setudipa, was composed at the request of one Śrīdāsa, who seems to have been the chief of a village named Ravivara.
The ms. covers only Cantos 1,2,3,4 (up to verse 39), 7 and 8. This is followed by Cantos 9, 10 and 11 (up to verse 113), of which only the Sanskrit chāyā is given without any gloss except in the case of four or five verses. The available portion of the ms, is fairly correct, but has a number of lacunae.
Devarāta belongs to the Southern school of commentators, and sometimes follows Krşņavipra closely. There is nothing remarkable in his commentary, but he seems to reproduce a number of alternative interpretations from other commentaries on the Setubandha. In his gloss on Setu 11.1, for instance, he reproduces that of Madhavayajvan in toto as an alternative explanation. But more conspicuous are the long anonymous excerpts from the commentary of Krşņadasa. These are usually introduced by the word athavā; but at least in one case, in Devarāta's gloss on Setu 4.26, the long quotation from Kļņadāsa is preceded by the words anye tvöhuh. Smaller citations from Krşņadāsa are, however, quietly incorporated in his own gloss without any prefatory remark (e.g., under Setu 3.37,4.23,7,50 etc.).
It is necessary to point out that some of the passages quoted from Devarāta in our Extracts are really citations from the commentary of Krşņadāsa. In Extracts 2.15 the entire passage beginning with the words svämšabhūte trailokye madhumathanamiva, attributed to Devarāta, is a quotation from Kțşņadāsa; so also
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