रूपमण्डन एवं देवमूर्त्ति-प्रकरणम् (मण्डन सूत्रधार - प्राचीन मूर्तिकला एवं देव-प्रतिमा लक्षण सटीक)

( 37 ) dancing have similarly been glorified⁹¹ although the artists and craftsmen themselves, curiously enough, occupy only degraded positions in society. Thus the preservation of Śilpa Texts in the hands of the hereditary artists and craftsmen who were looked down upon, was beset with some difficulty. But mistakes and lapses in the Mss. are fortunately seldom, errors of commission, and not a few, may be due to inexpert scribes. Unless and until better readings, supported by substantial grounds, can be suggested, it is not allowable to reject altogether the only available texts which bear the stamp of tradition through a long succession of generations. It is, therefore, very necessary to sift very thoroughly the apparently corrupt and contradictory readings with the entire critical apparatus at our disposal.⁹² And when there is a great paucity of materials in the form of Mss., as is the case with the present text Devata-mūrti- Prakaraṇam, it is necessary to formulate some general laws, or, to deduce some principles for future guidance, in preparing a critical edition. Secondly, it is also very urgent to devise ways and means, for interpreting the texts of Śilpa, when all extraneous aids are so inaccessible.

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91. Compare Nandikeśvara's Abhinayadarpaṇam (Critical Ed. of the Text with Introd., Transl., Notes and Illustrations. By Manomohan Ghosh., Cal. Skt. Series, No. V.), [Nāṭyapraśaṁsā], śl. 7b—11a (and Engl. Transl.). For the Saṅgīta-śāstra etc., also, it is possible to give numerous examples, of such eulogy.
92. It would not be, out of place, to compare here, for example, the immense help, which the present writer derived, by subjecting the apparently confusing readings to Epigraphic and Palaeographic Tests, elsewhere, while preparing his edition of the important Śilpa Text : The Buddhapratimā-lakṣaṇam. The Sarasvatī Bhavana Sanskrit Texts, No. 48. (Benares, 1933). Out of a hopeless medley and confused jumble of data, careful scrutiny and repeated efforts enabled the present writer, to deduce a number of most important principles.