महावीरचरितम् (महाकवि भवभूति - वीररस-प्रधान रामकथा नाटक सम्पूर्ण ७ अङ्क सटीक)

A METHOD FOR CITING SANSKRIT DRAMAS
PROPOSED BY THE GENERAL EDITOR OF THIS SERIES
Method of citing the metrical parts of a play.—These are cited by act,
and by stanza as numbered from the beginning of that act, and by quarter
or pāda, the pāda being indicated by a or b or c or d.
Method of citing the prose parts of a play.—The prose lines between
any two consecutive stanzas are numbered from the prior to the latter
stanza, starting always anew from the prior stanza. A given line is cited
by number of act and by number of prior stanza (counted as above) and by
number of line as counted from said prior stanza.—If there is no prior
stanza (that is, if the act begins with prose), a zero is put in place of
the stanza number.
Examples of the use of this method.—Thus, for this play, the Uttara-
Rāma-charita, the citation iii. 2ᶜ means quarter or pāda 3 of stanza 2 of
act iii, mohe mohe Rāmabhadrasya jīvam. Thus again iii. 2³ means
prose-line 3 as counted from stanza 2 of act iii, Muralā—Katham iva.
And iii. 0³ means prose-line 3 at the beginning of act iii, Muralā—
Bhagavatī Tamase, &c.
Appeal to future editors to use this method.—We might suppose a
method of citation to be a matter wholly unworthy of the serious con-
sideration of a great scholar, if we judge by the way in which such great
scholars as Böhtlingk or Pischel have failed to consider it. And from the
brevity of the foregoing three paragraphs, one might suppose the matter of
a method of citation to be so simple as to call for no elaborate discussion.
It is simple, but the simplicity is the outcome of a laborious consideration
of complexities arising from bad methods or lack of method, which com-
plexities are a constant annoyance to the scholar and a hindrance to his
progress. The essentials of a good method are discussed on the following
pages, and the need of a good method is made clear by showing the faults
of some bad ones. A bad method puts the student to a deal of worse than
useless trouble, and wastes his time, just as a good method saves it. A
c [H.O.S. 21]