गणितसारसंग्रह (महावीराचार्य - प्रो. लक्ष्मीचन्द्र जैन सविस्तार हिन्दी अनुवाद सटीक)

परिशिष्ट-६
[ Reprinted from the First Edition. ]
PREFACE
Soon after I was appointed Professor of Sanskrit and Compara-
tive Philology in the Presidency College at Madras, and in that
capacity took charge of the office of the Curator of the Goverment
Oriental Manuscripts Library, the late Mr. G. H. Stuart, who was
then the Director of Public Instruction, asked me to find out if in
the Manuscripts Library in my charge there was any work of
value capable of throwing new light on the history of Hindu
mathematics, and to publish it, if found, with an English trans-
lation and with such notes as were necessary for the elucidation
of its contents. Accordingly the mathematical manuscripts in the
Library were examined with this object in view; and the examina-
tion revealed the existence of three incomplete manuscripts of
Mahāvīrācārya's Gaṇita-sāra-saṅgraha. A cursory persual of these
manuscripts made the value of this work evident in relation to the
history of Hindu Mathematics. The late Mr. G. H. Stuart's interest
in working out this history was so great that, when the existence of
the manuscripts and the historical value of the work were brought to
his notice, he at once urged me to try to procure other manuscripts
and to do all else that was necessary for its proper publication.
He gave me much advice and encouragement in the early stages of
my endeavour to publish it; and I can well guess how it would have
gladdened his heart to see the work published in the form he
desired. It has been to me a source of very keen regret that it did
not please Providence to allow him to live long enough to enable
me to enhance the value of the publication by means of his continued
guidance and advice; and my consolation now is that it is something
to have been able to carry out what he with scholarly delight
imposed upon me as a duty.
Of the three manuscripts found in the library one is written
on paper in Grantha characters, and contains the first five chapters
of the work with a running commentary in Sanskrit; it has been
denoted here by the letter P. The remaining two are palm-leaf