वासवदत्ता (महाकवि सुबन्धु - श्लेष-प्रधान शास्त्रीय गद्यकाव्य सान्वय सटीक)

40 VĀSAVADATTĀ
virōdhas. The three editions under consideration contain the same
commentary, which has appeared to me to be negligible, and
which, according to Mr. J. K. Balasubrahmanyam, the publisher
of the Srirangam text (Pref. p. 1) to be mentioned below, 'is
traditionally attributed to one Tippa Bhupala, but nothing is
certain about it. For instance, just as we were completing this
book we got a palm-leaf manuscript of this work containing a
commentary said to be by one Ramanatha. On closer exami-
nation it turned out to be neither more nor less than the
commentary given in the Grantha and Telugu editions.' The
same general recension, though with a number of interesting
variations, is represented by the edition published at Srirangam
in 1906–1908, on the basis of several old palm-leaf manuscripts.
It also contains an admirably full, careful, and suggestive modern
Sanskrit commentary and an equally noteworthy Sanskrit intro-
duction by the editor, R. V. Krishnamachariar, of which I have
most helpfully availed myself. I distinctly consider Hall's and
this as the best editions of the Vāsavadattā that have yet
appeared. The Telugu text is also represented, more closely, by
T. V. Srinivasachariar's edition (Trichinopoly, 1906), which, I
regret to say, seems to me to offer scope for some improvement.
All the divergencies of the Madras, Srirangam, and Trichinopoly
editions from the text of Hall will be found duly recorded in the
footnotes to the present translation, while the variations of the
'southern' from the 'northern' recension will be indicated by
parentheses in the appended transliteration, the portions of the
'northern' text omitted by the 'southern' being there supplied
in square brackets. It will be clear that a critical text of the
Vāsavadattā, which shall take into account all accessible manu-
scripts, commentaries, and editions, is still a desideratum.
The Remaining Sanskrit Prose Romances. Except for a
digression on the relation sometimes held to exist between the
Sanskrit and the Greek romance (see above, pp. 35–38), this
Introduction to the Vāsavadattā has thus far purposely been
restricted to Subandhu and his work, especially as Meyer
(Daṇḍin's Daçakumāracaritam, die Abenteuer der zehn Prinzen,