COMMERCIAL EDS. + CRIT. EDS.

[aklujkar at unixg.ubc.ca]

As a contribution to the interesting and enlightening discussion about
critical and non-critical editions that is taking place, I would like to
draw the attention of colleagues to my article " An introduction to the
study of Bhart.r-hari" published in Asiatische Studien XLVII.1.1993, pp.
36.

Two of the more general parts of the article that can easily be quoted here
are as follows: 

       Section 5.2:  " It is probably an indirect consequence of the loss
of importance that Sanskrit studies suffered under the British Raj that the
texts of many or most important Sanskrit works first appear in poorly
published editions based solely on locally available mss.  Another
contributing factor to this sorry state could be that a Sanskrit pandit has
as little interest in preparing critical editions as a devout Christian has
in historical studies of the Bible.  Both are primarily interested in
content or message, and not in wording or problems of ascription, etc. 
Anyway, whatever the causes may be, scholars are frequently forced to
depend on such editions, and research is misled for several generations to
come. "
        I then give an account of how the studies of Bhart.r-hari, the
Grammarian-philosopher, were miseld for about one hundred years because of
the absence of critical editions. 
        After pointing out how good textual criticism gives objective and
hence reliable clues regarding authorship and geographical dimension of the
transmission of a text, I conclude:
        Section 6.3: "Manuscript work is usually very time-consuming,
largely boring, and frequently quite discouraging.  But unless the text is
presented in a dependable form and is studied well, scholarship progresses
no faster than in a three-legged race.  I hope I have conveyed to at least
some of you a sense of how exciting, like a detective s work, textual
criticism can be.  There is an Indian folktale in which a king s favorite
old minister correctly guesses, merely from a camel s footprints and
grazing pattern, a number of things about the animal, right down to (or,
perhaps I should say, right up to) the camel s being blind in the left eye.
 We should do well if we recalled that story.   

Ashok Aklujkar