कान्हड़दे प्रबन्ध (कवि पद्मनाभ - जालोर चौहान वीरगाथा, अलाउद्दीन खिलजी से युद्ध व जौहर इतिहास)

32 KĀNHAḌADE PRABANDHA have always adopted the lectio difficilior although found in a single manuscript, in preference to simplified synonyms found in a majority of manuscripts. It is rarely that all the manuscripts corrupt a reading, but then their combined evidence points surely and unmistakeably to one correct original reading, from which all the other readings have been derived. In such places, the original reading—a lectio difficilior—is restored. At a few places, two sets of readings are equally representative and therefore probable. There, the one which I find more suitable is adopted in the text, while the other is given in Appendix II. Even the slightest correction is mentioned as ‘emended’ in the critical apparatus. In fact, at all such places it is just a restoration of the original based on the collective textual evidence itself. Nowhere, have I tampered with the text by substituting an imaginary reading in place of the actual reading found in the manuscripts—not even at places where the combined evidence of all manuscripts points to a definite lapse by the poet. It will interest students and scholars of Old Gujarātī and Old Rājasthānī to know how I have selected the important readings in the text. I have discussed the grounds for selection of all such readings in Appendix II. VII A work of this magnitude could not be undertaken or com- pleted without the encouragement and help from several scholars, who have worked in this field. I am thankful to Professor P. K. GODE, Curator, Bhāṇḍārkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona, for giving me every possible facility in the use of the Kānhaḍade Prabandha mss belonging to the Bhāṇḍārkar Institute; to the trustees of the Anantanāthjī’s temple and Godījī’s Upāśraya for making the Kānhaḍade Prabandha mss in their Jñāna Bhaṇḍāras accessible to me; to Śraddheya Muni Śrī PUNYAVIJAYAJĪ for taking pains in procuring for me some valuable mss of the work; and lastly, to Śrī Motichandjī KHAJANCHI, well-known in Bīkāner for his excellent collection of old works and paintings, for placing at my disposal, without the least hesitation or ceremony, two rare mss from his collection. I am very grateful to His Highness Śrī KRISHNAKUMARASINHJI, Mahārāja of Bhavnagar, for the generous patronage extended by His Highness, which made it possible for me to undertake such a work in these difficult times. I am also thankful to the University of Bombay for a grant-in-aid for the publication of this work.