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INTRODUCTION
passes by the name of Vamana Pandita (1636-1695), but appears in varying order according to the whim of the publisher. The translation alone, without the original Sanskrit, published in the old Nirnaysagar Series, lacks all three mangalacaranas and is northern for Niti, southern for S-V, as is also the incomplete though certainly not identical text plus translation preserved in Ujjain 711 with a colophon ascribing the poem to Harikavi, perhaps Bharty-hari-kavi. There are several other Marathi translations of quite recent date, for the poet is still most popular in this part of the country. The Maharastrian influence in transmitting our MS apparatus should not be overlooked, though truly Maharaṣṭrian codices are not So numerous. The Western pandits enjoyed influence and prestige as far away as Benares long before the rise of the Maratha power; the Pahadi Brahmins of northern U. P. are acknowledged to be of Maharastrian [Karhādā ] origin. With the Maratha empire and particularly in the days of the Peshwas their influence was paramount, so that a considersable number of northern MSS then found their way into Maharaṣṭrian homes, to join the defective version W.
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The best known Hindi translation is that of Rana Pratap at the end of the 18th century; the Sanskrit originals of the slokas are often unidenti. fiable. Printed copies are singularly rare, though reported as in the British Museum collection [Cawnpore 1911]. The Sanskrit text given in Udaipur 1486 docs not match the translation, many stanzas being given without a Hindi equivalent. This is remarkable as the MS is dated just 33 years after the translation and copied at the same place for another prince of the same house. Indrajit's Vivekadipika in Hindi prose is far more scholarly, but only one MS each of the N [10 K7210] and the V [ BORI 350] are known, nothing having ever been reported of the S. The author was one of eight sons of Raja Madhukar-saha (1554-92) of Orecha. In Telugu, the best known is the metrical version of Enugu Laksmana which, like others reported in that language, is beyond me. Most of the printed vernacular translations may be neglected in the critical study unless based upon original MSS, and of unimpeachable authenticity. The editions, where any exist, are invariably uncritical, emended arbitrarily and rearranged according to the whim of the editor, without documentation. They constitute, as it were, extensions of the innumerable printed school editions of the Sanskrit text that appear every year in almost all parts of the country.
As with the translations, the anthologies need critical edition before real use can be made of them for the Bhartṛhari problem. At present, we can at best say what recension or perhaps version was known to the compiler.
IV.
Determination Of The Text
The
4.1. The problem. The previous section dealt with the problem of restoring as far as possible the original content of the collection before us. next step is to determine the original text of each stanza from all the variant forms preserved in the MSS selected for discussion differ.
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There is no question toxt-determination for group IV, seeing that both the works contained there are apocryphal. The Vijnanasataka is already published with a commentary while the Vitavṛtta is known from a solitary
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