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

xxi] Proposed by the General Editor of this Series
At this point a word in defence of Mr. Belvalkar's procedure in giving,
immediately after a Prākrit passage, its explanation in Sanskrit (or chhāyā),
set off by double verticals and by a difference of type. It is true that this
increases the length of the prose-passages, and consequently the possible
discord in the line-numbers as between one edition and another. But this
disadvantage is seldom considerable, and it is more than offset by the
convenience of always having the explanation just where it is needed,
instead of having to search for it at the bottom of the page or the end
of the volume. Moreover the breaking up of one printed page into two
or three or four typographically varying parts for text and chhāyā and
variants and comments is very unsightly.
The elements of the citations.—These may now be discussed in
systematic order. It is only the second and third elements of the citations
for the prose-passages that occasion doubts or difficulties.
For metrical and prose-passages alike, the first element of the citation
should of course be the act-number, as canon 1 requires.
For metrical passages, the second element should of course be the
stanza-number as counted from the beginning of the act. The stanzas are
short, and of a length (two or four printed lines) which is uniform as
compared with that of the prose-passages, so that stanzas are precisely
indicated and easily found by a single number.
For metrical passages, the third element should indicate the natural
subdivisions of the stanza. A Sanskrit stanza consists of four quarters or
pādas. A quarter of a stanza may therefore be indicated by a letter
(a, b, c, d). If an entire stanza is intended, the third element, the letter,
should be omitted. In this edition, anushṭubh and āryā stanzas are printed
as two lines, each line consisting of two undivided pādas; and in referring
to such a line, the letters ab are used together without any comma¹ between
them, or else cd.
Metrical passages containing interjected prose.—Prose-lines some-
times intervene between parts of a stanza. This complication is met in
a manner so logical and natural as hardly to need description: namely,
the stanza-number and pāda-letter together are treated as one element
of the citation, that is, as the second element, and the letter is not set
as a 'superior'. Thus between iv. 24ᵇ and iv. 24ᶜ of Uttara-Rāma-charita
a prose-passage of two lines and a complete stanza (iv. 25) intervene.
The prose-lines are cited as iv. 24 b¹ and iv. 24 b². The prose-lines fol-
lowing iv. 24ᵈ are cited as iv. 24 d¹, iv. 24 d², and so on (although iv. 25
precedes them !).
¹ If there is a comma (e. g. ii. 25ᵃ, ᵇ), the ferred to are not printed in the same
punctuation indicates that the pādas re- line (are not anushṭubh or āryā).