मानसार शिल्पशास्त्र (प्रसन्ना कुमार आचार्य - प्राचीन भारतीय स्थापत्य, नगर-नियोजन व मूर्ति-शिल्प महाकोश)

xviii PREFACE
the same chapter, as well as in different chapters, through copyist's
blunders or want of revision. The lacuna of 'I' may thus be
ascribed to negligence in reading the extremely injured parts of 'J,'
since we have such obvious common mistakes as varṇayet for
van-nayat, etc. They may be taken to form one group.
With regard to the provenance of the Manuscripts it is
unfortunately impossible to give much definite information.
'A,' 'C,' 'D,' 'E,' belong to the India Office. 'B' comes from Cal-
cutta and 'H' from Bombay. 'F,' 'G,' 'I,' 'J' come from Madras.
The Telegu character of 'D' and the Grantha and Tamil characters
of 'F' and the Grantha character of 'G,' 'I' and 'J' point to
their South Indian origin. "B' seems to have been written in
Bengal and 'H' in Northern India. In spite of their Devanāgarī
character, certain orthographic peculiarities, such as yiśa for īśa and
yeka for eka, 'A,' 'C' seem to be copies of South Indian originals;
or more probably, they were transcribed by South Indian copyists.
The critical apparatus furnishes abundant warrant for the
division of the manuscripts into such groups, and it could easily be
supplemented by a number of details, omission or addition, punc-
tuation, particular forms of letters, etc., which are not of sufficiently
noteworthy importance. Within each group the manuscripts are in
close relationship. This is proved by a number of variants common
to each group and especially by long lacunæ.
The relationship of the manuscripts within the above mentioned
families ('A,' 'F'; 'B,' 'D'; 'C'; 'G,' 'H'; 'I,' 'J') is a
matter of considerable difficulty. The nature of the work renders
it probable that the relationship should vary in various particulars,
and to some extent this expectation has been justified.
Of the peculiarities of the groups the following may be mentioned:
'A,' 'F' regularly write Kamṭha, Kamdhara, Kampa-madhyena; 'B,'
'D,' and 'I,' 'J,' write the same words as Karṇa, Kaṁdhara, Kam-
pamardhena. 'B' and 'C' have sometimes yeka for eka, yiśa for
īśa, etc. Such peculiarities as are common to almost all the manus-
cripts will be found treated more elaborately under the Critical Notes.