Mahavira Charitam

SR No.: 010406
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Todarmal Pandit
Publisher: University of Panjab Lahore
Publication Year: 1928
Total Pages: 407
Language: Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 34 MB

Page 11

INTRODUCTION
ix
original This revised text travelled to the North, where it now appears in the MSS of the Northern Group
But this hypothesis offers one difficulty. If the Northern Group does actually represent the revised text, why should the readings of the Southern Group be at places decidedly superior to those of the Northern ? I am of opinion that as the South was for some time the home of culture and learning, Bhavabhūti's works were more frequently studied there, and these occasional superior readings are to be attributed to the ingenuity of the learned readers.
The mutual relationship of the Mahāvīra-carita MSS can be better understood by the following diagram
Archetype
Northern
Southern
TMt Mr Mg
W
Sc ), AW Md
Cu
stands for the missing link
2. DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE MAHĀVĪRA-CARITA MSS.
A The Northern Group.
1. The most important of the Mahāvīra-carata MSS is K, No 327 of the Raghunāth Temple Library of His Highness the Mahārāja of Jammu and Kashmir. It contains seventy-one leaves with nine lines on each page and thirty-seven letters in each line The MS. is complete, comprising Acts I to VII It is dated samvat 1674 (=AD 1618) A copy of this MS was caused to be made for me by the Government of India. At the beginning it has the colophon om sti-paramātmane namah After this the text of the drama begins. After verse V. 46 the MS reads etāvad bhavabhūteh I agre kavi-nāyaka-vināyaka-bhattarr apūri. The stanzas are numbered, though the numbers are sometimes wrong, and sometimes omitted Judged by my copy, the original has lacunae in many places, but is otherwise fairly correct.
1 Vide p 78 in Catalogue of the Sanskrit MSS in the Raghunatha Temple Library of His Highness the Mahārāja of Jammu and Kashmu. Prepared by M A Stein, Ph.D (Bombay, 1894)