पृष्ठम्:बृहद्देवता.djvu/११

Introduction] A COMPOSITE MS. [xv in h. Their readings frequently agree in opposition to all the other MSS.¹ Either r¹ or r4 was probably the original of the other two, and may have been the only MS. which, according to a letter of his to Max Müller, dated Dec. 3, 1873, Mitra at that time possessed. He there says: 'Of the Brhaddevata I have an only MS. extending to eight chapters. It is tolerably correct, but apparently corrupt.' On the relation of these three MSS. the following anecdote may possibly throw some light. According to a rule of the series, no text may be edited in the Bibliotheca Indica unless based on at least three independent MSS. A certain Calcutta scholar was once anxious to edit a text of which he unfortunately had only one MS. This, however, did not prove an insuperable difficulty: he set his Pandits to work, and then there were three.' The readings of these three MSS. are on the whole inferior to those of h and r³, but in a few cases they alone have undoubtedly preserved the correct form of the text as compared with all the remaining MSS. (ep. i. 57; i. 75; i. 126; ii. 129) ². 9. m¹. This is a modern MS. which formerly belonged to Max Müller and is now in the University Library at Tokyo. It is dated sake 1783 (= A.D. 1861), being a copy made from a MS. which belonged to Bhau Dāji, but the whereabouts of which I have been unable to trace. It is the copy referred to by Bhau Dāji in a letter to Max Müller, dated Bombay, March 12, 1862, in which he says he is forwarding a copy of S'aunaka's Brhaddevata from a MS. in his collection. This copy has the peculiarity of representing both groups of MSS. On the one hand, in that part of the text which is common to both groups, it agrees in its readings with A, in particular with h and r³ (A¹), and in this part may therefore be accounted an A MS. On the other hand, it contains all the additional matter of the B group, and to this extent belongs to that group also. Owing to its independence and comparative correctness, it has proved more valuable to me than any of the other B MSS. I would have given much to trace the source from which it is derived. It shows a special affinity to h in two points. In the first place, the end of the seventh Adhyaya is here wrongly described (as also in the copies m², m³, d) with the words iti brhaddevatäyām sastho 'dhyayah. Secondly, this MS., like h, numbers the ślokas consecutively, the final figure, however (owing to the additional matter in B), being 1281, while in h it is 1049. The B Group. 1. b. A MS. belonging to the Royal Library at 1 Thus in Brhaddevatā i. II all the B MSS., as well as h r³ m², read 'bhidhiyate, while r¹ r² have pradṛśyate (cp. also the various readings in i. 18; ii. 158; iv. 16, &c.). 2 Instances of a certain affinity between these MSS. and b of the B group are to be found; ep. for instance the various readings under i. 124, 126, 127.