2022-08-12 00:26:59 by akprasad
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PREFACE
A copy of Vallabhadeva's Sanskrit Anthology was my earliest
purchase for the Bombay Government Collection of Sanskrit
Manuscripts. I had gone to Jeypore to meet there the Agent
and Shastri of the Search, from whom I hoped, in accordance
with Indian use and wont, to learn at least the rudiments of the
Art, of <error>Acqniring</error><fix>Acquiring</fix> MSS. By mischance they had gone instead
to Oodeypore in the heart of Rajputana. I was considering
whether I had not better make a virtue of necessity, and leave
Jeypore to revisit the place under better auspices, when some
good fortune led me to the Public Library. There was no one
in the room but a young scholar, who was reading, as I could
see, a volume of the Benares Pandit. I plucked up courage,
and, Sanskritam āśritya, introduced myself to him as a
fellow student. Pandit Durgaprasāda came next morning
to see me with a number of books which he thought might
be useful to me. Among them was this Subhāṣitāvali,
in the copy which he had himself used when a pupil in
Kashmir. I knew enough of my business to turn first to
the last leaves of the book for ready information as to its
nature and contents. In the sequel something will be said of
the verses on which I thus stumbled. It was clear that the
book was worth buying; and Durgaprasāda's manuscript, here
called A, is the foundation of this edition of the work. A year
later, in the course of a visit to Ulwar, I found a second copy
of the book in the library of Pandit Bhavanand of that place,
who has most kindly allowed us the free use of it for purposes
of collation (B). In the interval it had become apparent that
our book was the same as an Anthology of which Bühler got
two copies in Kashmir but which is in his Report ascribed to
Śrīvara. This information was due to Aufrecht, who had
obtained the loan of Bühler's MSS. and had in Weber's Indische
A copy of Vallabhadeva's Sanskrit Anthology was my earliest
purchase for the Bombay Government Collection of Sanskrit
Manuscripts. I had gone to Jeypore to meet there the Agent
and Shastri of the Search, from whom I hoped, in accordance
with Indian use and wont, to learn at least the rudiments of the
Art, of <error>Acqniring</error><fix>Acquiring</fix> MSS. By mischance they had gone instead
to Oodeypore in the heart of Rajputana. I was considering
whether I had not better make a virtue of necessity, and leave
Jeypore to revisit the place under better auspices, when some
good fortune led me to the Public Library. There was no one
in the room but a young scholar, who was reading, as I could
see, a volume of the Benares Pandit. I plucked up courage,
and, Sanskritam āśritya, introduced myself to him as a
fellow student. Pandit Durgaprasāda came next morning
to see me with a number of books which he thought might
be useful to me. Among them was this Subhāṣitāvali,
in the copy which he had himself used when a pupil in
Kashmir. I knew enough of my business to turn first to
the last leaves of the book for ready information as to its
nature and contents. In the sequel something will be said of
the verses on which I thus stumbled. It was clear that the
book was worth buying; and Durgaprasāda's manuscript, here
called A, is the foundation of this edition of the work. A year
later, in the course of a visit to Ulwar, I found a second copy
of the book in the library of Pandit Bhavanand of that place,
who has most kindly allowed us the free use of it for purposes
of collation (B). In the interval it had become apparent that
our book was the same as an Anthology of which Bühler got
two copies in Kashmir but which is in his Report ascribed to
Śrīvara. This information was due to Aufrecht, who had
obtained the loan of Bühler's MSS. and had in Weber's Indische