Natya Shastra Ascribed To Bharata Muni Set of 2 Vols.

Description

Natya Shastra Ascribed To Bharata Muni Set of 2 Vols. With the publication of the volume I of the text, my labours on the Nätyasästra are practically complete. After making in 1924 my first serious entry into the work in connection with editing the Abhinayadarpaņa, I kept on studying it with occasional interruptions, short and long, for about four decades. As this study during these years has been an intimate patt of my life, I may look back to its history with a degree of complacence which may be perdonable. But it being of more than personal interest I may be permitted to share it with the kind readers.

After the Chowkhamba edition of the Nätyasästra had been published in 1929. 1 studied the Prakrit Dhruvas in the chapter XXXII with the help of the London MSS. of the work, and published in 1933 a critical edition of them. A portion of the chapter XVIII, on the characteristics of Prakrit was also similarly treated at the same time. All this naturally improved a little my acquaintance with the entire work. And when the vol. II of the Baroda edition was published in 1936, I gradually came to believe that undertaking a new critical edition of the work might be justified. Grounds for such an assumption have been stated in the Introduction. Towards the end of 1942 I discussed the matter with some of my friends. As a result, in 1943 a proposal came from the Asiatic Society, Calcutta about my translating the Natyaśāstra. But knowing full well the great difficulty of the undertaking, I could not at once entertain it. Besides, the text of the work beyond the chapter XIX (XVIII of the Baroda ed.) still presented obscurities of varying degrees. Hence to avoid the laborious work of collating MSS. I waited for the next volume of the Baroda edition. But it was still not in hand in the middle of 1944 when the Asiatic Society or rather the then General Secretary, the late Dr. Kalidas Nag had renewed the offer mentioned above, and had the backing of the Council.

It must be confessedthat the offer being a very tempting one, it influenced considerably my future actions in this regard. Gradually I mustered courage and thought that such an offer was worth taking additional pains by way of collating MSS. Hence I informed the Society that their much valued offer might be accepted if they are ready to place at my disposal the necessary materials for a critical study of the text. But as the Second World War was then still going on, the Society pleaded inability to obtain MSS. from Europe, and suggested that I should carry on the work with materials available in India, supplemented by my notes made from the London MSS. consulted earlier in connection with the study of the Dhruvas mentioned before. Though this was to reduce to some extent the value of the translation, I at last agreed to complete a pioneer work only, and informed the Society that their very kind offer could be accepted on the condition that they would also publish the edited text in a companion volume. But printing paper being then in short supply due to the war conditions, and the Society’s funds also being limited, the question of publishing the text could not be entertained. I then bowed to the circumstances, and agreed to undertake the work of translation only. Possibly this was an act of indiscretion. But it is no good crying over the spilt milk.