[South Indian Sanskrit MS 061, Whish MS 62] Mahābhārata

Mahābhārata

Language – Sanskrit

Date – [1800?]
Palm leaf; manuscript in 2 volumes with continuous foliation; 10 or 11 lines on a folio.

Text consists of the Vanaparvan (or Āraṇyaparvan), Parvan III, of the Mahābhārata, in 300 Adhyāyas. The beginning (III, 1-32, 45) is missing, and the Nalopākhyāna is omitted. Winternitz notes that the MS is full of clerical mistakes. See H. Lüders ‘Zur Sage von Ṛṣyaśṛṅga’, in the ‘Nachrichten der K. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen Phil.-hist. Kl. 1901. Heft I’, p. 5 seqq., where an extract from this MS. is given.

Winternitz notes that there is an entry by C. M. Whish dated ‘Tellicherry 1827’, but he thinks the manuscript may be about 50 years older.

Vol. I begins at the end of III, 32, 45: mayor api | anyeṣāṃ karmmaṇi phalam asmākam api vā punaḥ | viprakarṣeṇa buddhyeta kathaṃ karmma yathāphalaṃ |

F.25b: ity āraṇyaparvaṇi naḻopākhyāne ekonapañcāśoddhyāyaḥ || [End of III, 52 in the Bombay and Calcutta editions] śrīkṛṣṇāya namaḥ || bṛhadaśvaḥ | āsīd rājā naḻo nāma vīrasenasuto balī | upapanna [read -nno] guṇair iṣṭai rūpavān aśvakovidaḥ | vidvān dānapatir dakṣaḥ sadā śīlapuraskṛtaḥ | atiṣṭhan manujendrāṇāṃ mūrddhni devapatir yyathā | uparyyupari sarveṣām āditya iva tejasā | brahmaṇyo vedavic chūro niṣadheṣu mahīpatiḥ | upari anyapustake asti | etat || Janamejayaḥ | bhagavan kāmyakāprāpte game prapitāmahāḥ [sic] | kim akurvanta pārtthās te tam ṛte savyasācinaṃ | etc. i.e. the beginning of the Tīrthayātrā Parvan, or III, 79 in this MS = III, 80 in the Bombay and Calcutta editions.

The first volume ends f.154b at the beginning of III, 183 (=III, 182 in the Bombay and Calcutta eds.)

Vol. II, f.216: end of the Mārkaṇḍeyasamāsyāparvan, III, 222 (= III, 231 in the Bombay and Calcutta ads).

F.277: the Sāvitryupākhyāna begins, III, 281 ( = III, 292 in the Bombay and Calcutta ads).

Text ends: na cāpy adharmmeṇa suhṛdviyojane parasvahāre paradāramarṣaṇe | ākāyabhāve ca rame manas sadā nṛṇāṃ sadākhyānaparañ ca śṛṇvatāṃ || (This is the end of III, 313 in the Bombay and Calcutta eds.) ity ārṣe śrīmanmahābhārate śatasahasrikāyāṃ saṃhitāyāṃ Vaiyyāsikyāṃ śrīmadāraṇyaparvaṇi dharmmavarapradānan nāma triṃśacchatatamoddhyāyaḥ || iti āraṇyaparvas samāptaḥ |

South Indian Sanskrit / Whish Manuscript Collection.

See ’A catalogue of South Indian Sanskrit manuscripts (especially those of the Whish Collection) belonging to the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland’ by M. Winternitz, with an appendix by F. W. Thomas (London: RAS, 1902) p.77-78. Go to http://tinyurl.com/j3tkdwj for a digital copy of this catalogue.

J. L. Whish, gift of manuscripts collected by his brother C. M. Whish, July 1836.

Text in Sanskrit; Grantha script.