पवनदूतम् /5
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The Manuscript of the Asiatic Society was of great
help to me as it gave happy readings in the case of most
of the doubtful and corrupt passages of the text as published
by M. Chakravarti. Explanatory notes which are found
in the margin of this manuscript, though not satisfactory
in all cases, were of great use to me in interpreting
many a difficult portion of the text. It is true that there
still are some passages the exact sense of which is not clear
and some cases where better readings could reasonably be
expected. In some of these latter cases I have tried to
put forth readings which, though not corroborated by
the available manuscripts, still appear to give better senses
and suit the context more satisfactorily. But in all important
places I have marked the readings suggested by me with a
query in order that the attention of scholars may be drawn
to them for what they are worth.
The main object in editing this poem has been to place
before the public as far correct a text of it as could be
made out from a comparison of the published text with the
scanty manuscript material that could be got hold of. I
have therefore been very careful in noting variants to the
extent of putting down as variant readings even those
that appear to be printing mistakes in the already printed
text. This may be going too far, but it has purposely been
done as it was not always possible or easy to determine
for a particular case whether the apparently wrong reading
was due to the faulty Ms. used by the editor or to the printer's
devil. Though the printed text was based on a sing manus-
cript I have thought it advisable to refer a reading to that
manuscript only where it has been attributed to the same by
the learned editor. The reference to the printed text in those
The Manuscript of the Asiatic Society was of great
help to me as it gave happy readings in the case of most
of the doubtful and corrupt passages of the text as published
by M. Chakravarti. Explanatory notes which are found
in the margin of this manuscript, though not satisfactory
in all cases, were of great use to me in interpreting
many a difficult portion of the text. It is true that there
still are some passages the exact sense of which is not clear
and some cases where better readings could reasonably be
expected. In some of these latter cases I have tried to
put forth readings which, though not corroborated by
the available manuscripts, still appear to give better senses
and suit the context more satisfactorily. But in all important
places I have marked the readings suggested by me with a
query in order that the attention of scholars may be drawn
to them for what they are worth.
The main object in editing this poem has been to place
before the public as far correct a text of it as could be
made out from a comparison of the published text with the
scanty manuscript material that could be got hold of. I
have therefore been very careful in noting variants to the
extent of putting down as variant readings even those
that appear to be printing mistakes in the already printed
text. This may be going too far, but it has purposely been
done as it was not always possible or easy to determine
for a particular case whether the apparently wrong reading
was due to the faulty Ms. used by the editor or to the printer's
devil. Though the printed text was based on a sing manus-
cript I have thought it advisable to refer a reading to that
manuscript only where it has been attributed to the same by
the learned editor. The reference to the printed text in those