Page:Bibliography of the Sanskrit Drama.djvu/15



It has long been desirable that students of Sanskrit literature should have as complete a catalogue as possible of all Hindu authors and their writings, in order that they might be able to tell at a glance how many manuscripts of each work are known, how many editions and translations have been made, and what has been written concerning them. It is the purpose of the present volume to fill this need for the Sanskrit drama. The material here presented has been collected for several years, but unforeseen circumstances have delayed the publication long beyond the time originally proposed, although some portions of the work have already appeared in print.

In a book of this character it is practically impossible to secure absolute completeness, and this is especially true of lists of manuscripts, since new catalogues of collections both in India and in Europe are constantly being published. Many titles of earlier editions and of the older ancillary literature, moreover, were accessible to me only in catalogues of various descriptions, frequently compiled with scant regard to bibliographical accuracy and by no means complete. The conditions under which I labored precluded the possibility of access to all the actual manuscripts and editions, and I was therefore obliged to cite a large number of entries at second or even at third hand. Absolute fidelity to the original titles has consequently been denied me, and—a far more serious matter—it has only too often proved impossible for me to secure the pagination and other details of very practical import for Sanskritists. Even when the volumes were at hand, however, I did