Posted:
Originally posted by: Chandraketu
Kal
Thanks for this description of the variations within Valmiki itself. As it is, I normally reject the other versions, such as Tulsidas, Adhyatma, Ananda, et al, but this does open another can of worms. Do any of the versions above - particularly the critical edition - try and pinpoint 1:4, which has the exact number of shlokas and everything else, and identify where exactly it's sourced, so that they can either keep the count consistent w/ that? Or is that one of the things removed?
A variant of that sloka is found in every recension. The Southern Recension version tells us about the total size of the poem (24,000 slokas in 500 [or 600,depending upon version] Sargas divided into 6+1 kandas) whereas the Northern Recension version goes into more details and gives us a breakdown of the number of sargas per kanda and number of slokas per sarga.
Let's call this sloka the "list of contents".
Now here's the problem: the actual count does not match up with the list of contents in any recension. They are greater than the descibed figures. Further, the kanda-by-kanda and sarga-by-sarga breakdown provided in the Northern Recension versions of the list of contents don't even add up to 500 [or 600] sargas and 24,000 slokas (they add up to bigger figures)! In other words, even the mathematics of the list of contents provided in the Northern Recensions are erroneous, forget the actual count. There is no version available where the counts and descriptions match up perfectly.
This is due to the fact that the manuscripts were passed down from generation to generation by manual copying and errors and interpolations crept in, resulting in bloated, confusing texts. This is why the commentaries are important in trying to figure out which slokas/sargas could be interpolations.
The recensions also vary in the division of kandas and sargas as well as the sequence of slokas in some cases. There are entire sargas in a recension not found in the others. One sarga in a recension might be split up into multiple sargas in another and vice versa. Where one kanda ends and another begins also varies.
The Critical Edition is actually much shorter than the individual recensions because, as I mentioned earlier, they tried to reconstruct an authentic version by removing what they considered unsupported or interpolated verses from the Southern Recension which they consider the least distorted. The size of the Critical Edition is 606 sargas in about 19,100 slokas. Did they discard some slokas they shouldn't have? Did they include some slokas they shouldn't have? These questions are being debated even today.
By the way, about a third of each recension is unique to itself. So if we count the common slokas only once, the total number of slokas in all the recensions adds up to around 40,000 - 50,000. 😳
To give you an idea of the situation, when the Oriental Insitute (Baroda) started on their Critical Edition project, they first compiled a list of 2,500 known manuscripts! These manuscipts are spread all over the subcontinent and not easy to obtain (they belong to various institutions and private owners). They sent out an appeal for the loan of these manuscripts. They also asked information about uncatalogued manuscripts. Yes, there are even more manuscripts: scholars are of the opinion that the total number far exceeds 2,500! 😲 Ultimately they obtained more than 200 manuscripts and ended up using 231 for the constituted text of the Critical Edition. As you can see, the quest for an authentic version is far from over.
Cricket
Udne Ki Aasha
Veer Hanuman
Anupamaa
