SEMINAR REPORT

CRITICAL EDITION AND

TEXTUAL CRITICISM OF
INDIAN MANUSCRIPTS

Submitted By: Arya A Varma

Register Number: 19KA03SG01

Class: Third Semester M.A Sanskrit General

Course - Manuscriptology (PSGM10117)

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I am glad to present a seminar on the topic ‘Critical Edition and Textual

Criticism of Indian Manuscritps’ as a part of the internal evaluation. I would like
to express our gratitude and thanks from the bottom of our heart to Smt. Lt. Lisha
C R, without whose guidance, this task would not have been accomplished. I also
extend our sincere gratitude to all other faculty members of the Department of
Sanskrit General and my friends and other people who have helped me in this
endeavor.
MANUSCRIPTOLOGY

Manuscriptology deals with the scientific study of ancient manuscripts. This relates
to the method of preservation and critical edition of manuscripts available in
different forms. The main aim of this is to restore and reconstruct the writing and
bring it to its native form as far as possible without dismantling the author's
originality. The word 'Manuscript' is derived from the Latin words 'Manus'
(meaning hand) and 'Scriptos' (meaning writing). They are generally available in
various forms such as palm leaf (Talapatra), birch bark, cotton cloth
(Karpasapatika), wooden planks (Kastha Phalaka), copper/gold/silver plates, stone
plates (Silaphalaka), brick plates (Mrttika Phalaka), paper etc. The discipline of
critical text editing and textual criticism seek to determine the text of an early work
exactly as it is was written by its author. These texts which were studied in
different regions of the country handed down from generations, copied and cross
copied successively by scribes of varying caliber, in different local scripts and
using different types of writing materials.

CRITICAL TEXT EDITION AND TEXTUAL CRITICISM

Ancient India had a fairly developed tradition of textual criticism. A good

commentator is also a good competent text critic also. It would seem that one still
finds numerous references to Pathantaras (variant readings), Praksiptas
(interpolations), Apapatha (wrong readings) etc. Readings of other redactions
which the commentator does not accept as the correct reading, scribal errors etc.
are also pointed out.

Edition generally means a systematic arrangement of an author's work for

presentation with necessary modification, revision and deletion as per the
requirements of the editor. But a critical edition is a representation of an author's
work without involving any change in an objective manner without dismantling the
nativity of the work.

The critical edition is scholarly known as 'Textual Criticism'. It is a criticism or in

other words, a discussion about the various aspects of the text like verbal
expression, wording etc., rather than the ideas in the text. Textual criticism has
naturally to deal with texts. It may be defined as the skilled and methodical
exercise of the human intellect on the settlement of texts. The chief province of
Indian textual criticism deals in the main with copies of copies. The texts which
have come down to us were copied for the most part on birch bark, palm-leaf and
paper; these had to be copied several times at different periods both by way of
precaution against wear and tear, as well as a means to satisfy the desire of other
persons than the first possessor to become acquainted with their contents. This
copying was not done by any mechanical reproductions of the original such as, for
example, the photographic facsimiles of modem times, but through copies made by
the human hand directed, more or less, by the human intelligence. If the latter had
not been the case, Indian textual criticism would have little to do with Indian texts.

PROCESS OF TEXTUAL CRITICISM

According to one accepted practice, Textual Criticism is divided into two

processes - Recension (recensio) and Emendation (emendatio). This is the
customary division. By recension is meant the selection of the most trustworthy
manuscripts or documentary evidence as a basis on which the autograph or a text
standing nearest to it may be founded. This selection is only possible after a
thorough critical examination of all the evidence that is available. Emendation is
the attempt to eliminate all the untrustworthy elements in the manuscript tradition,
which even the best documents or manuscripts exhibit. In a sense it is an attempt to
transcend the tradition and therefore a deliberate but systematic attempt to overrule
the written evidence.
The classical model, applied to the criticism of Greek and Latin texts, divides
textual criticism into four processes:

 Heuristics
 Recensio
 Emendatio
 Higher Criticism

Heuristics is the assembling and arranging of the entire material consisting of

manuscripts and testimonia in the form of a genealogical tree or pedigree or
stemma codicum. It enables the editor to classify the manuscript evidence into
definite strands of tradition, either totally independent or mutually related by
intermixing. This begins with the investigation of the evidence to be found in the
transmitted form of the text for which we have to rely on manuscripts. These may
be either extant or non-extant. The evidence of extant manuscripts must be
ascertained by collation. To collate a manuscript is to observe and record
everything in it which may be of use for determining what stood in the source or
sources from which it is derived. On the basis of such collations, the genealogical
relationship of the manuscripts becomes clear, and this may then be represented by
means of a stemma or pedigree.

Recensio is the restoration of the text to its most ancient type possible on the basis
of the material arrived by heuristics. It is the process of interpretation. It interprets
the written evidence of the manuscripts, weighs them in certain lights, and settles
the text on their basis to the oldest possible form on certain principles. This aspect
is really the antiquarian phase of textual criticism and its aim is to discover the
earliest ascertainable form of the text with which is being dealt.

Emendatio is the restoration of the text of the author. This process is to arrive
fundamentally to the text of the author, and in a sense getting behind the written
evidence by overruling it where necessary from certain intrinsic considerations.
This is possible because most of our classical authors do not stand alone.

Higher Criticism is the separation of the sources utilized by the author. It is the last
stage in textual criticism. It is yet too early in the history of Indian textual criticism
to attempt this task, in the absence, particularly, of scientifically edited texts of
well-known classics. It extends to the realms beyond the extant manuscripts and
seeks to assess and improve upon the text arrived upon through lower criticism.
This is achieved by the means of evidence such as the author's literary acumen, the
style, the ideas likely to be expressed, historical allusions and background, social
conditions etc.

Prominent Sanskrit rhetoricians are all text critics. Bhamaha, Anandavardhana,

Mahimabhatta, Bhoja, Hemacandra, Mammata, Visvanatha etc. are a few of them.
They are more of text-critics than text-editors. Textual criticism is usually done by
commentators of some base works. Some of them include Vallabha, Hemadri,
Mallinatha, Caritravardhana, Raghavabhatta, Purnasarasvati etc.

CRITICAL APPARATUS

The critical apparatus includes the materials required for critical editing. The
materials are categorized as:

 Primary Apparatus
 Secondary Apparatus
The primary apparatus comprises all the available manuscripts in the form of
autograph and copies. An autograph is a manuscript written with author's own
hand. A copy is a reproduction or rewritten form by others at different times and
places. This copy is called transmitted text.

There are two kinds of transmission by means of which the extant texts have come
down to us. One is the licensed or protected transmission, wherein the text is
copied under the direction of the author or a representative of the author, or the
learned possessor of the exemplar or at the instance of a royal patron employing
real scholars to supervise this copying. In other words, control is exercised on the
copyist in order to ensure the integrity of the text; for if such control were not
exercised the integrity of the text would be certain to be impaired even during the
life-time of the author. The chances of such corruption are infinitely greater when
the author is dead. The other type which is probably much more frequent is the
haphazard or unlicensed transmission. In this case manuscripts were often copied
by stupid and ill-educated men who were not altogether ignorant of the meaning of
what they wrote. The handicaps attendant on such privately made: copies at a time
when the original exemplars were regarded as luxuries and protected zealously
from any encroachment even by the learned may be gathered from the trouble
which modem scholars have to undergo in order to secure transcripts of
manuscripts preserved in some privately owned libraries.

An autograph is supposed to be genuine and faithful for critical edition. But,

availability of such an autograph is very rare. The editor has to depend mostly on
copies of the autograph. It is natural that there is a possibility of deterioration,
change, alteration and sometimes deliberate modification in copies. Such a thing
poses difficulty in determining the original text. It therefore becomes a necessary
to collect several manuscripts of the same title to make a comparative study. This
comparison leads to finalization of the best and the basic version of the text.
Since the transmitted texts were handed down through successive transcriptions
from earlier sources ultimately going back to a common source, all the manuscripts
of a given text, in so far as they are authentic, are related to one another and this
relationship can be shown in the form of a pedigree. In other words they represent
a tradition running along certain determinable lines, but in a majority of cases each
strand of this tradition does not remain by itself. As mentioned before, they have
been intertwined from the very beginning by the continuous activities of revisers
and redactors.

The secondary apparatus includes all ancillary equipments which are useful for
primary apparatus. In this category, ancient commentaries, epitomes, adaptations,
anthologies and descriptive catalogues which indicate the background and history
of manuscripts, form an important part.

THE EDITOR

The editor of the critical edition is supposed to be well - versed in his field to
which a particular manuscript belongs. It is necessary because in Sanskrit, there are
manuscripts relating to scientific subjects, apart from literature and philosophy.
Simple linguistic expertise or Sanskrit knowledge may not serve one's purpose.
Although critical edition mostly deals with the formal aspects of a text, the
interpretation plays an important role in fixing the correct reading. It is for this
reason that the editor should possess the knowledge of the subject to which the
content of the manuscript is related.
METHODS OF EDITING

When manuscripts of the same title and of the same author have been collected, it
becomes the duty of the editor that he should select one of those and identifies the
one which seems to be basic and original by collating the manuscripts. It is a fact
that the manuscripts, when compared, show variations in reading.

The procedure of comparison includes firstly the classification of manuscripts

under different names according to the choice and convenience of the editor. The
content of all such manuscripts are compared in detail afterwards. While
comparing the readings, the variations within should be recorded separately. In this
procedure, the insignificant mistakes of the scribe should be corrected. Also, any
violation pertaining to the metre of the verse and grammaticality should be noted
separately. Above all, author's own method of dealing with the topic should be
taken as internal evidence for finalizing the accuracy.

It is to be noted that the overall correct form of the composition, meaning and
interpretation etc. of the text depends on the decision of the editor. It is also the
responsibility of the part of the editor that he should provide appropriate words in
case of missing and make necessary emendation as per the contextual and
conventional demand of the content in the text without damaging the originality.

COLLATION AND CORRUPTION

Before establishing the authenticity of the manuscript for acceptance, it is

necessary to maintain the procedure of collation although and judge the
chronological significance of the work. The chronological approximation often
provides clue to the variation and corruption in composition. The corruption in
critical editing is described as 'Bhasamalinya'. This is found in different forms and
phases of the manuscripts. There are reasons as to why such corruptions creep in.
Errors have an inevitable way of creeping in so that a copy and qua - copy, can
never be the equal of the exemplar and may even be its inferior. The deterioration
so produced increases with the number of successive copying, or in other words,
the degree of error increases in successive transcriptions and with the gradual loss
of the autograph and its immediate copies, copies of copies to any degree of
descent will have to serve as sources of further transcriptions. Since in transmitted
texts, generally the degree of error increases continuously under ordinary
circumstances, therefore the age of a manuscript is an important consideration,
although it is not an absolute criterion for the absence or presence of errors.

The deviations from the original, which thus occur in both cases, are due to two
well known causes: Visual errors and Psychological errors, and each of these will
differ to a greater or less extent with every compositor or copyist. The scribe or
copyist is prone to commit both types of error, and thus deviate, even if slightly,
from his original. Visual errors comprise substitutions, omissions or addition,
which the eye of the scribe makes through weakness or inattention. Psychological
errors arise from the tendency of the mind to read some meaning into its own
mistakes or the mistakes in the exemplar from which the copy is made. The main
corruptions in classical texts are largely due to errors of this class. Even the best
scribe cannot copy mechanically for long without allowing some play to his
intelligence; even at the worst he hardly ever copies letter for letter any writing that
he understands. In most instances it will be found that the scribes copy words and
not letters.
As the texts have come down to us, a manuscript is not usually a clean copy or a
single piece of writing. It is very commonly found to contain alterations by erasure,
additions or substitutions, which are scribal errors of the manuscript, or due to the
revisers of the text.
Every scribe has his own idiosyncrasies and every manuscript has peculiarities of
its own. The idiosyncrasy of the scribe appears in traits of handwriting; in a
proneness to certain kinds of error and comparative immunity from others; in a
bias of thought or taste which has influenced his work where he had two or more
variants to choose between. Such peculiarities can only be learnt by close and
continuous study of the manuscript.

MAJOR CORRUPTIONS THAT OCCUR IN MANUSCRIPTS

The following are the main corruptions that creep in manuscripts, according to the
scholars:

 Haphazardness and efforts to eliminate it

 Lapses
 Compilation

Haphazardness and efforts to eliminate it arise due to the confusion regarding the
similarity in the shapes of the letters. Also, Copying the letters and words on the
basis of mere resemblance in form can lead to corruption. Ascribing wrong
meanings to acronyms, wrong juxtaposition of words or separating the words etc.
from the part of the editor contribute to a fair amount of corruption of manuscripts.

Apart from these, considering a portion of the sentence as the concluding line and
the rest of the sentence to be the next portion, abridging sentences, portions, pages
and also changing the positions of letters, words and sentences can lead to many
mistakes. The linguistic errors include some mistakes like changing the Sanskrit
words wrongly to Prakrt and vice - versa, wrong translations of words, errors
arising out of change in pronunciation, confusion of numerals and proper names,
using words of current usage or words of equal meaning in place of rare words,
replacing new letters instead of old letters and trying to show negligence of the
errors.

Lapses of letters or syllables too lead to corruption of the basic text. Some of the
lapse phenomenon includes haplography (dropping letters and words in the
beginning and ending portions of a uniform line) and other natural lapses like
lipography.

In the process of compiling the texts, repeating the preceding or the succeeding
portion of a text matter conveying a meaning can lead to corruption of the text.
Also, including into the main text a matter written in between two lines or that
written in the margin of the leaf and mixed versions of readings contribute to
lapses. Some editors tend to construct words and sentences by the influence of
related writings.

Most often, the interpolation in a manuscript poses problem for the editor. This is
known as 'Praksiptas', which seems to be deliberate with a view to reforming the
text and representing it in a better way.

The following are the reasons for such interpolations in the text:

 In order to cover up the obscure portions in a work, such portions are written
afresh effecting a change.
 Inclusion of a wider portion by adding a new line or new stanza - such
inclusions is not generally believed by some to have been the act of the
scribes.
 Adding stories and sub-stories
 Expanding the subject suitable to circumstances
 Inclusion of left-out lines in the manuscript by guessing
  If any portion of the work is not appealing to scribes, such as portion,
whether accurate or not, is amended as their fancy leads or desired matter is
added or eliminate the already existing matter

It is the responsibility of the editor to detect such portions and carefully examine
those as to whether they form the part of the native writing.

RECORDING THE OBSERVATIONS

An introduction to critical edition records the result of collation. All procedures,

principles and specifications adopted for studying the manuscript are noted in the
introduction. Moreover, the introduction provides a detail picture of entire study og
the manuscript.

The main aspects that are covered under the recording of observations include the
source, nature of the manuscript, selection of the manuscript, method of collation,
the text, the author, conclusion and appendix.

The different sources of collecting the manuscripts should be mentioned along with
a detailed description of the source and its type. Afterwards, the editor should
emphasize on the background and history of the manuscript. With this, a list of
manuscripts and the nature of each copy should be specified. The editor then
should enlist the critical apparatus involved with specimens. Other credentials of
the manuscript like a formal description showing the number of leaves, lines and
letters must be indicated.

The procedure adopted by the editor for the classification and selection of the
manuscripts should be mentioned. The reasons for selecting one for the editing
must be provided along with a list of rejected manuscripts with their grounds for
rejection. Apart from these, the manuscripts whose acceptability is in doubt should
be enlisted with appropriate reasons.

The main step in critical edition is the explanation of the methods adopted for
collation. The principles behind the determination of the nature of the text and the
use of sigla and other marks should be explained.

This is followed by the indication of the formal division of the text. It should be
established whether the text itself is complete or incomplete and whether there is
any discontinuation. If there is any discontinuation observed, the reason for the
same is to be indicated.

The editor should also enumerate the interpolations of the text along with the errors
and omissions. The appropriateness of the titles should be discussed by tallying the
same with colophon. As regards to the matter of the text, the importance of the
benedictory and dedicatory verse should be underlined. The content of the
manuscript and its specialty should be briefly noted. The controversial and
conflicting points noted within, if any, is worth noting. The chronological
significance which has direct bearing upon the manuscript should be treated
specifically.

The determination of authorship is a general problem for ancient manuscripts. The

editor should therefore, produce possible evidences in support of his argument in
case of controversy. The description of the place, date, life and other works of the
author should also be mentioned. The treatment of the subject and style of
presentation by the author need to be detailed. The contemporaries of the author
should be mentioned with reference to their works. Any other scholastic and
historical affiliations of the author should also be indicated.
Rest of the observations, special remarks and such other intrinsic apprehensions
may be placed in the conclusion. Usefulness of the work may also be stated.

After the conclusion, an appendix should be added which accommodated

additional information at the end of the work. The appendix include the name
index, subject index, list of rare and important versions, a glossary of technical
terms, alphabetical list of verses and any other references that seem appropriate.

The textual criticism is an important aspect of research in Sanskrit. It is important

because unless and until the exact matter of a text is faithfully represented no
investigation to its content would be satisfactory and useful. Further, when the
critical edition of a text becomes credible, it facilitates the process of text - based
research.

SUMMARY

Thus, the manuscript tradition in India shows that while the ravages of time and
other causes destroyed the majority of autographs or their immediate copies or
even early descendants, their late copies, which have survived to our days, present
to us texts in a mutilated or defaced or deteriorated condition. In some cases the
injuries done to the text may be of such a nature as to make it almost unintelligible.

Textual criticism has for its sole object the interpretation and controlling of the
evidence contained within the manuscripts of a text or in documents so that we can
reach as far back as possible and try to recover the authentic text or to determine as
nearly as possible the words written by the author himself. In other words, it is the
skilled and methodical exercise of the human intellect on the settlement of a text
with the sole object of restoring it, so far as possible, to its original form. By
‘original form’ we understand the form intended by the author. Such a restoration
is often called a critical recension.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Dash, Keshab Chandra. Elements of Research Methodology in Sanskrit.

Varanasi: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Sansthan, 1992.

2. Katre, S M. Indian Textual Criticism. Bombay: Karnatak Publishing House,

1941.