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

xxxiii] Preface
The foot-notes to the translation are meant to give the help that a non-
Hindu reader may need for understanding the play, but no more. The
play bristles with proper names as familiar to a Hindu as is the name
of Achilles to a Greek or of St. Paul to a Christian. These Sanskrit
names are hard for the Occidental. Moreover, he is confused as to the
identity of a character, partly because the same person is called by so
many different names. I have therefore given a brief foot-note every time
a new name appears in the translation. And to show the relation of the
several characters in the action, I have (on the advice of Professor Lanman)
given in the Introduction a summary of Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa, a poem which
(strange as it may seem to a Hindu) is very little known outside of India.
More elaborate verbal or aesthetic comments are reserved for the Notes
proper.
The conclusion of a preface, the grateful acknowledgement of kind
counsel and friendly services, is, to the author at least, a most delightful
task. It is right and it is pleasant to say 'Thank you'. And it is
pleasanter still to think that the names of men who share your enthu-
siasms are to be permanently associated with your work, and that the
turning of its pages will always remind you of those who have toiled and
are toiling with you to reach a common goal.
The names of those who have edited or translated this play before me
are given in Appendix 12, and need not be repeated here.
Dr. Frederick W. Thomas, Librarian of the India Office in London, has
procured for me the loan of manuscripts from the India Office Library,
the Deccan College Manuscripts Library and the Ānandāśrama Library
of Poona, and the Sanskrit College Library of Calcutta—and all with a zeal
and kindness that go far beyond the perfunctory discharge of official duty.
Dr. Otto Schrader of the Adyar Library at Madras did me the valued
favour of sending to the Harvard Library for my use some palm-leaf
manuscripts. And I am indebted to Mr. S. P. V. Ranganāthaswāmi,
Āryavaraguru, of Vizagapatam, for a similar favour, and also for
providing me with some early editions of the play, now out of print.
The Prime Minister of Nepal, with a liberality and insight that deserve
all praise, sent seventy manuscripts of the Durbar Library to Oxford for
photographic reproduction under the supervision of Professor Macdonell,
among them the old and important Nevārī manuscript (dated 1196) of this
play, and of it the Harvard College Library generously procured for me a
rotograph copy. To His Excellency, to Dr. Macdonell, and to the College,
my hearty thanks.
Shreemant Babasaheb Ghorpade, the talented Chief of Inchalkaranji,
has laid me under considerable obligation. It is to his kindness that
e [H.O.S. 21]