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

32 KĀNHAḌADE PRABANDHA
have always adopted the lectio difficilior although found in a single
manuscript, in preference to simplified synonyms found in a majority of
manuscripts. It is rarely that all the manuscripts corrupt a reading,
but then their combined evidence points surely and unmistakeably to one
correct original reading, from which all the other readings have been
derived. In such places, the original reading—a lectio difficilior—is
restored.
At a few places, two sets of readings are equally representative
and therefore probable. There, the one which I find more suitable
is adopted in the text, while the other is given in Appendix II.
Even the slightest correction is mentioned as ‘emended’ in the
critical apparatus. In fact, at all such places it is just a restoration
of the original based on the collective textual evidence itself. Nowhere,
have I tampered with the text by substituting an imaginary reading
in place of the actual reading found in the manuscripts—not even at
places where the combined evidence of all manuscripts points to a
definite lapse by the poet.
It will interest students and scholars of Old Gujarātī and Old
Rājasthānī to know how I have selected the important readings in the
text. I have discussed the grounds for selection of all such readings
in Appendix II.
VII
A work of this magnitude could not be undertaken or com-
pleted without the encouragement and help from several scholars, who
have worked in this field.
I am thankful to Professor P. K. GODE, Curator, Bhāṇḍārkar
Oriental Research Institute, Poona, for giving me every possible
facility in the use of the Kānhaḍade Prabandha mss belonging to the
Bhāṇḍārkar Institute; to the trustees of the Anantanāthjī’s temple
and Godījī’s Upāśraya for making the Kānhaḍade Prabandha mss in
their Jñāna Bhaṇḍāras accessible to me; to Śraddheya Muni Śrī
PUNYAVIJAYAJĪ for taking pains in procuring for me some valuable mss
of the work; and lastly, to Śrī Motichandjī KHAJANCHI, well-known in
Bīkāner for his excellent collection of old works and paintings, for
placing at my disposal, without the least hesitation or ceremony, two
rare mss from his collection.
I am very grateful to His Highness Śrī KRISHNAKUMARASINHJI,
Mahārāja of Bhavnagar, for the generous patronage extended by His
Highness, which made it possible for me to undertake such a work in
these difficult times. I am also thankful to the University of Bombay
for a grant-in-aid for the publication of this work.