The Eadeavours of Andhra Pradesh Government
Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Institute
The Andhra Pradesh Government Onental Manuscripts Library and Research Institute took up the publication of this work. A detailed editorial review in Telugu on the work of Sarana has been provided by Dr Aruna Kumari of the Andhra University, who entrusted the task of editing this work.
Her impressions about the text and the method of editing chosen by her have duly been recorded in her editorial review in Telugu. The following is the English version:
“In this book there are many poems which are incomplete and hence the thread of narration is broken. Had all these poems been available in accomplished form, the work would have been more appealing and tasteful. Although the mistakes that crept into syllables and alphabets of the script have been, to a large extent, corrected, the missing compound words and lines have not been supplied by me, as I did not venture to do so The readers may, therefore. accept the original text as it is"
True, it is a sound principle of editing provided the health condition of the original script is normal. But when it is so critical that the reader cannot make out the full meaning which the poet intends to convey it may, however, be the duty of the editor to come to then rescue. In such a case, I personally feel, there is nothing wrong if a sincere suitor makes the necessary corrections and supply the omissions But honesty requires that the edno should present what is original and what is supplied in a clear manner. With this principle kept in view, the department of Oriental Manuscripts Library and Research Institute ventured to prosecute the editing work with the help of the microfilm copy and paper manuscript copy available in the department and also the paper manuscript copies brought from the Andhra Sahitya Parishad, Kakinada.
The editing work has been accelerated to the extent possible and this critical edition of 'Udayanodayamu' is the result.
The Critical Edition
The crux of the problem of editing this work is that the original palm-leaf manuscript No 356, available in the Tanjore Library is not complete. It contains 104 leaves upto a portion of the fifth Canto. Mistakes are innumerable Scribe's hand is illegible. At some places
the leaves are broken and torn out[1] There are a number of blank lies
- ↑ Remarks on Udayanodayamu, recorded in the descriptive catalogue of Tanjore Manuscripts Library, edited by P P S Sastry and published by Andhra University 1933 p 29.
