Some Observations On Manuscript Transmission Of Nyayabhasya

Author(s): Yasutaka Muroya
Publisher: Yasutaka Muroya

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Journal of Indological Studies, No. 18 (2006)
focus for the present article.
2. The Trivandrum manuscript, alias the Paliyam manuscript
The Trivandrum manuscript is preserved in the Oriental Research Institute and Manuscripts Library, University of Kerala, Trivandrum. I was able to obtain copies of the ms. in January 2003, following research in November 2002 at the institution. The presence of the ms. in this Library was made known in 1995 by the publication of the sixth volume of the mss. catalogue of the institution. Recent field research by Preisendanz in February 2006 has shown that like the ms. of the NTD, the ms. was originally kept in the possession of the Paliyam family in Chennamangalam, Kerala. This fact, in its turn, confirmed our previous assumption regarding the identity of the original of a transcript of a NBh ms. preserved at GOML, also available to the project (see below).
The palm-leaf ms. (hereafter designated as T), which bears the ms, number 14980A, is part of a composite ms.; the text of the NBh is followed by a list of the prakarana-s of the NS, 10 the text of Udayana's Nyāyaparisista (ms. no. 14980B) and that of Vāmeśvaradhvaja's Pañcikā (ms. no. 14980C).
Let me briefly describe T. It is written in Malayālam script, most probably by a single hand, and is undated. The leaves are in bad condition due to damage of the material, such as innumerable worm-holes, and are sometimes broken off at the edges. They are numbered with letter-numerals in Malayālam script according to the so-called nannādi system, which are placed in the middle of the left hand margin of each recto side. However the first leaf is marked with śr, the second with na, and so forth,12 which does not reflect the common nannādi system (cf. Grünendahl 2001: 94); according to the common system, it would start with na already on the
8 Alphabetical Inder of the Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Oriental Research Institute & Manuscripts Library. Eds. K. Vijayan, P. Visalakshy and R. Girija. Vol. VI. Trivandrum 1995. This ms. is considered identical with the ms. of the NBh corresponding to the entry "Paliyam 257(a)" that is already reported in Kunjunni Raja (1978: 279, left column).
9 According to the Register of the institution, the ms. of the NBh was donated by the Paliyam family in 1951, and the ms. of the NTD in 1969. I owe this information to Prof. Preisendanz. Cf. also footnote 5 above.
10 This list of prakarana-s is identical with the list that is printed in the edition of the Nyāyaparisista. The editor identifies its source as the Madras ms. "ma" and regards it as an "additional part having the form of a summary of contents" (visayasarigraharupo 'dhiko bhagah). Cf. NP 1-2, fn. 1. It is evident from the information in the catalogue (cf. Kuppuswami Sastri 1927: 5038-5039 under "Beginning") that the list was part of the ms. of the NP. The Madras ms. is also a transcript of a Paliyam ms.: "Transcribed in 1920-21 from a MS. of the Paliyattu Valiya Accan, Chennamangalam, Cochin State." Cf. Kuppuswami Sastri 1927: 5038-5041 under R. No. 3377.
1 For some examples of this type of pagination, cf. Ikari 1995: 10, fn. 30; cf. also Ikari 1996: 150, fr. 10.
42 For practical purposes, when referring to the text of T, I will refer to the leaf marked with sri as "f. 1" and to the leaf marked with no as "f. 2."