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Paris. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Sanscrit 1406

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Source
Gallica (Bibliothèque nationale de France)
Library
Paris. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits
Shelfmark
  • Sanscrit 1406
Biblissima authority file
Date
  • Around 1790, based on Rocher 2007.
Language
  • Sanskrit
Title
  • Vivādārṇavasetu
  • বি­বা­দার্ণব­সে­তু
Agent
Description

  • Contents:

    The Vivādārṇavasetu, or Vivādārṇavabhañjana, is a law treatise composed by a group of eleven paṇḍits commissioned by Warren Hastings. A translation into English by Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, via Persian, was published in 1776 as A Code of Gentoo Laws. The English version contains 19 chapters (ūrmi or taraṅga), while this manuscript contains 21. The first two chapters in this manuscript are treated as prefatory material in the translation.

    According to the colophon, this manuscript was produced by Rādhākānta Śarmā, who is probably Rādhākānta Tarkavāgīśa, an 18th-century paṇḍit who worked with Sir William Jones (Rocher 1989). This copy was presumably made by Rādhākānta from a Bengali copy that he borrowed on October 29, 1789, according to a note by Jones in another copy of the Vivādārṇavasetu conserved in St. Petersburg (Rocher 2007, 64).

    There are a number of marginal corrections and annotations in Rādhākānta's hand, as well as a number of variant readings, which are distinguished by being prefaced by the number 2 (for example, see folio 13 recto and folio 32 recto). Notably, there are also annotations in a different hand, perhaps the same one as in the table of contents. On folio 12 verso, this hand has repeated the beginning of the third chapter as a variant reading, perhaps indicating that the English translation omits the first two chapters (Rocher 1981). This is also the beginning of the 1888 edition.

    This manuscript shares the same size and format as a number of other Bengali dharmaśāstra manuscripts from the Cordier collection: Sanscrit 1349, Sanscrit 1405, Sanscrit 1408, Sanscrit 1410, & Sanscrit 1441.

    The microfilm images are ordered from back to front, probably due to the shelfmark sticker being on the back cover. In his supplement to Cabaton's catalogue, Filliozat has misspelled the title as “Vivādārṇasetu”.

    Contents (Single-text manuscript)

    Vivādārṇavasetu Rubric

    [folio 1v]oṁ namo lipilambodarāya ||


    Incipit

    [folio 1v]viśveṣāṃ śaraṇaṃ narāmbudaruciḥ sadbhaktacintāmaṇir yaḥ pratyuhatamovināśamihiraḥ kīnāśabhīnāśanaḥ |


    Explicit

    [folio 128r]
    [5] […]sadbhiḥ kālīśaṅkaraśyāmasundarakṛṣṇākeśavasaṃjñaiḥ | sītārāmasaṃ(gai)ś ca kṛto grantha\ḥ/ sphuratu sabhāyāṃ |


    Completion statement

    ity anekaviṣayavāsividvadvṛndo savarṇitaḥ— | vivādārṇavasetvā
    [6] khyo granthaḥ saṃpūrṇatāṃ gataḥ || ❈ ||–❈–||


    Colophon

    oṁ gurave namaḥ || ❈ || śrīśrīrādhākṛṣṇābhyāṃ namaḥ— || ❈ ||–❈–|| likhitā śrīrādhākāntaśarmmaṇā || ❈ ||–❈–|| oṁ gopālāya namaḥ— |


    Paratexts correction: Corrections in yellow paste and white paste.
    table of contents, detached: Table of contents on laid paper, 420 mm x 90 mm, in what seems to be a different hand. Two entries from the table of contents are repeated on folio 1, recto: “vyavahāra 44 |”, and “strīpuṃdharmaḥ 110 |”.
    user-related note, detached: Scrap paper: 30 x 95 mm, between folios 97 & 98. In the microfilm, this is seen faintly on the left edge of folio 97, verso.
    title, shelfmark, end: Note in Filliozat's hand on the verso of the last folio: “No 78 Vivādārṇavasētu (Comp. pour Warren Hastings)”.

    Transcription conventions
    () indicates unclear text. \/ indicates additions. […] indicates an ellipsis. oṁ represents the oṃkāra symbol. Spaces added in transcription where possible. ❈ represents a puṣpikā.

    Physical Description:

    Bengal
    Scribal hands: (major) Bengali script: ra with dot below. Ink, black. (minor) Bengali script: ra with dot below, ya with dot below.
    Diagram (cover): On the inside back cover (which has the shelfmark sticker), there is a tree diagram marked repeatedly with “puṃ” and “strī”, perhaps reflecting some aspect of inheritance law.


    Paper (handmade) (Pothi.) leaf: 95 × 535 mm. object: 95 × 535 × 45 mm. written: 50 × 445 mm. 1 column. 7 written lines per page. Decorated stringhole space.

    Wood covers, possibly mahogany.
    (beginning, end) “BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE” stamp, folio 1 verso and folio 128 verso.

    Custodial History:

    Acquired by Jean Filliozat for the BnF.


    Part of the collection of Palmyr Cordier.

Place
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  • Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits
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