नाट्यशास्त्रम् (प्रथम भाग - अभिनवभारती एवं हिन्दी टीका सहित)

XL

less complete (though uncritical) text of the work published from Benares in 1929²⁰ would, it is hoped, be considered a desideratum by persons interested in the ancient Indian drama. The present work has been the result of such a study, and in it has been given for the first time a complete annotated translation of the major portion of the Nāṭyaśāstra based on a text reconstructed by the author. ²¹

2. The Basic Text

The text of the Nāṭyaśāstra as we have seen is not available in a complete critical edition, and Joanny Grosset's text (Paris-Lyons, 1898) does not go beyond ch. XIV. Hence the translator had to prepare a critical edition of the remaining chapters before taking up the translation.²² For this he depended principally upon Ramakrishna Kavi's incomplete edition (Baroda, 1926, 1934) running up to ch. XVIII (our XX) and including Abhinava's commentary, as well as the Nirnayasagar and Chowkhamba editions (the first, Bombay 1894. and the second, Benares, 1929). As the text of the Nāṭyaśāstra has been available in two distinct recensions, selection of readings involved some difficulty. After the most careful consideration, the translator has thought it prudent to adopt readings from both the recensions, whenever such was felt necessary from the context or for the sake of coherence, and these have been mentioned in the footnotes. But no serious objection may be made against this rather unorthodox procedure, for A. A. Macdonell in his critical text of the Bṛhaddevatā (Cambridge, Mass. 1904) has actually worked in this manner, and J. Grosset too in his edition does not give unqualified preference to any racension and confesses that due to conditions peculiar to the Nāṭyaśāstra his text has 'un caractere largement éclectique' (Introduction, p. xxv) and he further says 'nous n'avions pas l'ambition chimérique de tendre a la reconstitution du Bharata primitif......(loc. cit.). Conditions do not seem to have chaged much since then.

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²⁰ Sri-Bharatmuni-pranitam Natayasastram. (Kashi-Sanskrit Series, Benares, 1929.

²¹ This edition will be published later on. The following chapters of the NS. have been translated into French : ch XIV and XV ( our XV and XVI ) Vagabhinaya by P. Regnaud in his Metrique du Bharata ; see note 8 above, ch. XVII ( our XVIII ) Bhasavidhana by Luigia Nitti-Dolci in her Les Grammairiens Prakrit. This has been partially ( 1-24 ) translated into English by the present writer in his Date of the Bharata-Natyasastra, See JDL, 1930, pp. 73f. Chapter XXVIII by J. Grosset in his Contribution a l'etude de la musique hindou ; see note 10 above. Besides these, ch, XXVIII by B. Breoler in his Grund-elemente der alt-indischen Musik nach dem Bharatiya-natya-sastra. Bonn. 1922, and ch. IV by B. V. N. Naidu, P. S. Naidu and O. V. R. Pantlu in the Tandavalaksanam, Madras, 1936 and chapters I-III translated into Bengali by the late Pandit Asokenath Bhattacharyya in the Vasumati, 1352 B S.