2023-02-17 20:19:25 by ambuda-bot
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PREFACE
The manuscript discovered in the condition described
above was first brought to light in 1916 by Pandits
G. Harihara Sastri and V. Srinivasa Sastri of Trivan-
drum. The manuscript itself was in the possession of
Pandit N. Ramaswami Sastri and the credit of
preserving and publishing the available portion of the
manuscript must go to these three scholars. The
Trivandrum Edition of the work of which the first two
Pandits are the editors is the only available edition of
the work and contains only the text of the work.
The present edition of the Madhurāvijayam is
based on the only manuscript available. The editor has
been in search of a second and more perfect copy of the
manuscript these fifteen years and his efforts have not
so far met with any success. Yet in publishing the
present edition of the work with the same imperfections
of the original as are found in the Trivandrum edition,
the editor has at least the satisfaction that he is giving
a translation of the whole work for the first time. The
introduction to the Trivandrum edition by the distin-
guished scholar Sri T. A. Gopinatha Rao throws
welcome light on some of the dark corners of the
history of the forgotten empire." But many of his
conclusions are now in need of revision in the light of
the information that is now available and that was not
available when Sri Gopinatha Rao wrote the introduc-
tion. Again, Sri Gopinatha Rao has failed to avail fully
of the epigraphical evidence on the two great events
described in the Madhurāvijayam: the destruction of
the Sambuvarāya rule in Tonḍaimandalam and the
destruction of the Madhurai Sultanate. He has depend-
ed too much on literary evidence without looking for
epigraphical or other kind of corroboration. The result
66
The manuscript discovered in the condition described
above was first brought to light in 1916 by Pandits
G. Harihara Sastri and V. Srinivasa Sastri of Trivan-
drum. The manuscript itself was in the possession of
Pandit N. Ramaswami Sastri and the credit of
preserving and publishing the available portion of the
manuscript must go to these three scholars. The
Trivandrum Edition of the work of which the first two
Pandits are the editors is the only available edition of
the work and contains only the text of the work.
The present edition of the Madhurāvijayam is
based on the only manuscript available. The editor has
been in search of a second and more perfect copy of the
manuscript these fifteen years and his efforts have not
so far met with any success. Yet in publishing the
present edition of the work with the same imperfections
of the original as are found in the Trivandrum edition,
the editor has at least the satisfaction that he is giving
a translation of the whole work for the first time. The
introduction to the Trivandrum edition by the distin-
guished scholar Sri T. A. Gopinatha Rao throws
welcome light on some of the dark corners of the
history of the forgotten empire." But many of his
conclusions are now in need of revision in the light of
the information that is now available and that was not
available when Sri Gopinatha Rao wrote the introduc-
tion. Again, Sri Gopinatha Rao has failed to avail fully
of the epigraphical evidence on the two great events
described in the Madhurāvijayam: the destruction of
the Sambuvarāya rule in Tonḍaimandalam and the
destruction of the Madhurai Sultanate. He has depend-
ed too much on literary evidence without looking for
epigraphical or other kind of corroboration. The result
66