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

example of the futility of citing by pages is seen in Ghāṭe's edition of this
play (Nagpur, 1895). Here the pagination begins anew in one and the
same volume no less than seven times: namely, for preface (1–2), intro-
duction (1–12), text (1–192), translation (1–60), notes (1–51), glossary (1–8),
and corrections (1–3), to say nothing of two sequences without pagination.
Thus for example there are (if we disregard the differences of Arabic,
Roman, and Nāgarī numbers) two pages for every page numbered ‘60’
or less, three pages numbered ‘51’, four pages numbered ‘12’, five pages
numbered ‘8’, and seven pages numbered ‘2’. In Kāḷe's Śākuntala, Bombay,
1898, there are no less than ten different sequences of pages! two sequences
are without pagination, and eight sequences begin with page 1. Multiple
sequences of pagination are very frequently found in books printed in
India, and I call upon Hindu editors to recognize the inconvenience thereby
occasioned, and to exclude such sequences from the works which they edit.
Combinations of bad system and systemlessness.—These need hardly
be described except to show the bewildering perplexities that result. Of
these an example or two.
The Mṛichchhakaṭika of Calcutta, 1829, gives in the headlines the name
of the play (343 times repeated, but with no indication of the act!) and the
page-numbers. There is no numbering of the stanzas and none of the
prose-lines. Stenzler's edition of Bonn, 1847, gives in the headlines
the number of the act and the page-numbers, and every fifth page-line
is indicated by a marginal number. Lassen's Prākrit grammar refers to
the Calcutta edition. In order that students may use Lassen's book with
Stenzler's text, Stenzler puts the Calcutta page-numbers in his margins.
The general effect is confusing, and the confusion is aggravated by the
numbers at the end of every speech (not line) in Prākrit (not Sanskrit)
counted from the top of the page! Böhtlingk's translation of this play
gives no help for finding a desired passage except the number of the act at
the beginning of each act. In order to use it with reasonable facility,
I had to write the number of the act on the outer corner of the uneven
pages, and the number of the stanza in the margin.
Goḍabole's Mṛichchhakaṭika of Bombay, 1896, gives the act-number in
the headlines. It numbers the stanzas from the beginning of each act,
and gives these numbers between double verticals at the end of each
stanza. But it also gives a number between European parentheses at the
end of each speech in Prākrit (not Sanskrit) for reference to the explanation
at the foot of the page. This double numbering is, to use an English
nyāya, like having a big hole for the big cat and a little hole for the
kitten. Moreover, it gives a marginal numbering of the lines counted
(without distinction of prose and verse or of Prākrit and Sanskrit) from