________________
ioż
INTRODUCTION Ramadasa, in an alternative explanation, explains it as visma pita. SC objects to this interpretation, and cites a Desi lexicon to show that the correct meaning of the word is mürcchita.1
The conflicting character of the two sets of evidence mentioned above seems to suggest that the commentary of Ramadāsa was not known to the compilers of SC at the first pbase of the compilation, but that references to his interpretations were added later when his work became available to scholars in Bengal.
Rāmadasa
The Rāmasetupradipa of Rāmadāsa is the best known commentary on the Setubandha, largely because it is not only complete and well--preserved, but was the first commentary on the poem to be published along with the text.?
Rāmadāsa gives some interesting information about himself and his environment in the introductory and concluding verses of his commentary. He was a Rajput prince, patronized by Akbar, and belonged to the Kacchavāha clan, like Rājā Mānasimha of Amber, to whom he refers. The editors
1 See Extracts 9.41. The initial portion of SC's gloss on the verse is anonymously
reproduced from Kulanätha, but the word vismāpita found there is a mistake for vismärita, which is Kulanātha's rendering of the Pkt, word. Second edition. NS Press, 1935. The editors do not give any information about the manuscript material used by them; and the text of the poem seems to have been reproduced as it is from the ms. available to them. Nevertheless, apart from mistakes and minor variations, it generally agrees with the text of Goldschmidt. The latter gives a critical text based on four mss, of Rāmadāsa's commentary containing the text and the chāyā; but in a few cases adopts readings from his ms. C written in 1596 A.D., Krsnavipra's commentary and Hemacandra's Prakrit Grammar. For instance, in Setu 7.21 he rejects Rāmadāsa's reading païnna (see NS ed.), and adopts the reading paalla from ms C. Trans. follows Goldschmidt, but Rāmadasa's reading is well-supported. See section IX.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
