Srngaramanjari Katha

Author(s): Bhojdev, Kalpalata K Munshi
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 25

2
ŚṚNGARAMANJARIKATHA
effort elicited an answer from the Dewan, Jaisalmer State, Jaisalmer. The Dewan in his letter dated 20th July 1941 says that "the above manuscript in very old Devanagari characters is available in Basta No. 325 of the Jain Bhandar but it is reported to be incomplete inasmuch as some of the first pages are missing, many of the pages are not numbered and some are mixed up with another book."
'It is hoped that other scholars and institutions will interest themselves in securing a copy and publishing it and save it from oblivion into which it has fallen for some centuries.'
It is interesting to trace how this Ms. came to see the light of the day. Muni Jinvijayji had a keen desire to see this Ms. himself ever since he read the description of it. In 1942 Muniji stayed for five months at Jesalmere specially to examine the Bhaṇḍāras, and made a thorough search for the Ms. At first he found about fifteen to twenty leaves of the work and got them copied under the impres sion that this was all that could be found of the Ms. But while he was examining other Mss. it struck his expert eyes that a number of leaves in the same scribe's hand lay scattered in other works. He therefore collected all such leaves and had a fresh copy made. From one of the texts he found a fragment of the last page of this Ms. and hoping then that a great number of fragments may be found, he searched through the heaps of fragmentary pieces stored up in the dark and stinking underground cellars of the Bhandara. The search was successful; and he obtained a lot of material. With the idea of publishing the work he brought it to Bombay and gave the leaves for printing. But other preoccupations compelled him to leave the publication half done.
In 1945 when I registered as a student for the degree of Ph.D. in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan under Muniji's guidance, he suggested that I should take up the work of editing this Ms. The Ms. along with the first copy of the leaves and the fragments were given to me. The present work is the result of a critical study of the same Ms.
The Age of the Ms.
The date of the composition of the SMK is given in the last stanza, but unfortunately the folio is fragmentary and therefore it The portion about the date of the composition reads:
is lost.
. वत्सराणां शकद्विषः ।
कृतेयं भोजराजेन कथा [ शृंगारमंजरी ]
But the Ms. is not dated. The condition of the palm leaf and the style of writing indicate that it could not have been written later than the 12th century. In the Bhandara there are other Mss. copied by the same scribe, but unfortunately none of them too are dated.