Krtya-Tattvarnava in Set of 2 Volumes (An Old And Rare Book)

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IT WILL exceed all limits of propriety if I feign to take upon myself the Lask of introducing Dr. R. C. Hazra, the editor of the present publication, to the scholars interested in studies in Sanskrit.

The editor has reserved for himself the arduous task of introducing the author of the Smriti work. The introduction will be published in Part II. Scholars may suffer some inconvenience, which, I hope, they will forgive.

In editing the work Dr. Hazra has relied on eight texts, the first of which is dated Saka 1503, the year, Din Ilahi was proclaimed. The work belongs to an age of writing injunctions on rites and modes of their per- formances. The Smriti work was followed by "Tattvas" of Raghunandana and Haribhakti-vilas of Gopalbhatta Goswami besides other numerous writings on identical subject. One may fancy that Raghunandana added "Tattva" as suffix to his works following his teacher's "tattvarnava".

The Society had notice of the work as far back as in 1874 having been referred to by Rajendralala Mitra in his Notices of Sanskrit Mss., item No. 986. The manuscript which came to his hands was written in Bengali characters and was noticed to bear the title Krityakalavinirnaya. The surname of the author as appearing from the beginning of the said Mss. was only referred to in the Notice. The learned editor has referred to the said manuscript in his critical notes.

The beginning may be of much interest to scholars of Medieval Vaishnavism in Bengal. It may reveal intimate connection of the author with the group of Madhavendrapuri and Advaityacharyya, the harbingers of Sreekrishna Chaitanya.

I owe an apology to the scholars and readers for delay in bringing out the publication which was, however, due to unavoidable circumstances, beyond the control of the Society and the editor.

This is to present, for the first time, before the scholarly world a critical edition of the hitherto unpublished Smrti work entitled Krtya-tattvärṇava by Śrīnatha Acarya- cadamani, a highly renowned Smrti-writer of mediæval Bengal, who was the son of Mahāmahopadhyaya Śrīkarācārya and the teacher of the illustrious Smärta Raghunandana. This edition is based on the following eight Manuscripts:

1. DA = Dacca University Ms. No. 49, dated Saka 1503.
2. DB = Dacca University Ms. No. 4320, dated Saka 1717.
3. DC Dacca University Ms. No. 4620, bearing no date. .
4. DD = Dacca University Ms. No. M2.38/12 (as given in the Valuation List), dated Saka 1749. .
5. DE = Dacca University Ms. No. 652B, which is incomplete. .
6. AS Asiatic Society (Calcutta) Ms. No. G3690, dated Saka 1636. .
7. SP = Sanskrit Sahitya Pariṣat (Calcutta) Ms. No. 518 (Smrti), lacking the first five folios and bearing the date Saka 174[ ]. .
8. VSP Vangiya Sahitya Pariṣat (Calcutta) Ms. No. 1535, bearing no date. .
For some unforeseen difficulties in the way of its printing.

it has been absolutely necessary to divide its text into two Parts and to reserve the copious INTRODUCTION (containing all information about Srinatha's works, personal history, date, etc., and a detailed description of the Mss. used for this edition) for publication as Appendix-I at the end of Part-II. As usual, the BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDICES, ERRATA, etc., will follow the Appendices at the end of the second Part.