मल्लपुराण (ज्येष्ठिमल्ल - प्राचीन भारतीय मल्लविद्या, अखाड़ा व्यायाम व कुश्ती महाग्रन्थ)

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interesting to note that besides giving the mythological history of the art of
Wrestlers or athletes, the work gives much information about the practices of
the Indian Mallas, their classification, notes on their diet, preparation of ground
for exercise and other details that are noted in the section on the summary of
the Mallapurāṇa.
Manuscripts
The Mallapurāṇam is known from two works, in the form of a manuscript
and a printed book. The MSS is preserved in the Bhandarkar Oriental Institute,
Acc. No. 369 of 1892-95. This is a paper manuscript in Devanāgarī Script and
is dated 1731 Saṁvat (1674-75 A.D.). The detail of the MSS is given below.
Henceforth it is noted as B.MS.
The details of the B.MS. are as follows :—
Place of Deposit— Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona.
Acc. No. 369 of 1892-95.
Title—Mallapurāṇam
Author—Unknown.
Age—Saṁvat 1731.
Extent—Folios 18.
No. of lines in each Folio—about 12.
No. of letters in each line—about 36.
Material—Paper.
Script—Devanāgarī of Western India.
Style—Written in one uniform handwriting.
Size—27.3 cms. × 11.4 cms.
Condition--Fair with some parts moth-eaten.
Colophon—Saṁvat 1731 Varṣe Pauṣa Śukla Pakṣa 11
Somavāre ॥ Śubham ॥ likhitaṁ dunichandreṇa
Eventhough this manuscript has its colophon the subject matter is incomp-
lete, as it abruptly ends after Chapter IX with the colophon of the scribe.
The other copy is a small printed book that was published from Baroda in
Śaka 1833. This text contains besides the Mallapurāṇa, the information about
Gotra, Pravara, Sandhyā, Upāsanā and other details. The text here is more or
less complete but differs in part from the B.MS. The differences are noted at
relevant places in the present edition.
A related work viz. Mallaśāstra by Devisiṁha is noted by Dr. E. D.
Kulkarni of Poona in a paper presented to the All India Oriental Conference at
Shrinagar. But this MS. belonging to the Bikaner library is not studied in this
work as it was not available.