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

INTRODUCTION 17
out with care. It appears that the original was written in the tradi-
tional Devanāgarī style with paḍimātrā, which has been properly
transcribed in modern Devanāgarī. Only at rare places the scribe
has mistaken the paḍimātrā for the ā-stroke of the preceding letter.
An interesting feature of the writing is the separation of the ा or ि
(ā or i) sign from the preceding consonant when the latter touches the
margin. At one place (f. 29 verso) the scribe has written वि in a
peculiar way—the ि mark written in l. 4 (last letter), and the letter व
in the succeeding line—l. 5 (first letter).
The comparative accuracy of this ms and the stage of language
it shows suggest that its original was an old and accurate manuscript.
But it seems to have suffered when the copy was made. It is
possible that the scribe has inserted anusvāras, which did not exist in
the original. ms D being only a recent transcript of an old ms, it
is not reproduced in facsimile.
Ms E is a fragmentary ms¹, originally belonging to the late
Dewan Bahadur K. H. Dhruva, now in the possession of the Gujarāt
Vidyā Sabhā, Ahmedabad.
As it is incomplete and its colophon has not come down, details
about its date and the copyist are lacking. However, from the condi-
tion of the manuscript, as well as the style of writing, it can be
presumed that the ms is at least as old as the B ms or perhaps even
a little older.
The fragment consists of 9 folios in all—folios 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and
21, 22, 23, 24.
Folios 4-9 measure 10.2" by 4.5" with margins .7" wide on
both sides and 5" at the top and the bottom Folios 21-24 measure
9" by 4" with margins .5" wide on both sides and .25" above and below.
The margins are marked out by three or more lines in red
and black. In the left-hand margins of the verso side are written
numbers of folios, but except on folio 22 verso left-hand margin
where at the top is written कान्हडदे २२, nowhere is the title of the
poem mentioned.
Folios 22, 23, 24 leave blank space in the middle to form a
svastika.
Folios 4-9 have on an average about 16 lines per page; while
folios 21-24 have about 18 lines per page. Folio 24 has 20 lines on
both sides.
¹ ms E extends from I 83–I 140, I 167–I 242, III 175–IV 61
‡