वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

INTRODUCTION 39 substitution or omission, to avoid many difficulties of word, phrase, or allusion which the 'northern' text boldly retains. Manuscripts and Editions of the Romance. For the manu- scripts of the Vāsavadattā and its commentators reference may be made to the catalogues of Sanskrit manuscripts enumerated by Aufrecht (Catalogus Catalogorum, 1. 566, 726; 2. 133–134, 224; 3. 120, Leipzig, 1891–1903). The principal commentators on the Vāsavadattā have been discussed by Hall (Introd., pp. 44–48), and I myself have written on 'Śivarāma's Com- mentary on the Vāsavadattā' (in JAOS. 24. 57–63), so that the problems there treated need not be repeated in this place. Although the editions of Subandhu's romance will be duly listed in the bibliography (see below, pp. 197–198), a more detailed discussion seems appropriate here. These editions are seven in number. The first and best-known, which represents the 'northern' recension, is that of Fitzedward Hall (Calcutta, 1859), based on eight manuscripts and accompanied by the gloss of Śivarāma Tripāṭhin, who flourished early in the eighteenth century. The introduction to this edition has become a classic among Sanskritists, and the learning which it evinces on every page renders it amply deserving of this honour. Hall's text, how- ever, represents a form really older than any of his manuscripts, being that of Śivarāma, in whose favour the editor repeatedly discarded the united authority of all his manuscripts, a method of textual criticism which may perhaps be considered open to objec- tion. The text of Hall has been reprinted verbatim by Jīvānanda Vidyāsāgara (Calcutta, 1874; 3d ed., 1907). The remaining five editions belong to the 'southern' recension. Of these the earliest is one in Telugu script (Madras, 1861), which was reprinted, with a correction of misprints, in Telugu (Madras, 1862) and Grantha script (Madras, 1870). The second of these, duly collated with the India Office copies of the other two, which Mr. F. W. Thomas, librarian of the India Office, London, most kindly placed at my disposal, is transcribed below (pp. 145–195). The text of this 'southern' recension is evidently later than the 'northern', since it abounds in interpolations, especially in the lengthened ślēṣas and