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INTRODUCTION
below in details. One feels that the current of the story has stopped abruptly and a few more verses would have happily concluded the Canto. Lastly, as indicated below, the author is closely following the order of events given in Bhāgavata X. 62-3; and by a close comparison it is quite plain that we wanted a few more verses at the close of Canto Two to cover the contents of Bhāgavata X. 63.24-30.
Besides this gap at the end of Canto Two, the form of the text is all right for all appearance. The only other gap of one line that I could spot out is at iv. 72 in the second line. The Sanskrit Chāyā is altogether lost, and the first line too is partly corrupt. The second line is somehow made up by twelve letters, which, really speaking, are a corrupt version of the last twelve letters of iv.71. So I thought it better to keep that line blank, and I have given those twelve letters in the foot-note.
It is necessary to note some details about the additional verses repeated at the close of Canto Two. Irregularity begins after verse No. 57. After a line and a half of the Chāyā of ii. 58, there follow three lines and a half from the Chāyā of iii. 60, and then we have ii. 58. Thus it is plain that the major portion of the Chāyā of ii. 58 is lost altogether. Thereafter we have the following verses from Canto Three in the order shown below : Chāyā-iii. 61 (Chāyā has lost one line); Chāyā-iii. 59; only a few words of the Chāyā-iii. 60; only Chāyā of iii. 58; c& d of the Chāyā of iii.55; iii. 58; Chāyā-iii. 56; a & b of iii. 57; blank space; only Chāyā of iii. 53; Chāyā-iii. 54; Chāyā-iii. 51; iii. 55; Chāyā-iii. 52; only Chāyā of iii. 49; iii. 53; Chāyā-iii. 50; blank space; mutilated Chāyā of iii. 47; iii. 51; Chāyā-iii. 48; blank space; iii. 49
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