Page:The Harsa-carita of Bana (1897).djvu/13

 PREFACE. THE book of which an English translation is now for the first time presented to those who are interested in Hindu literature and antiquities, appears to have been almost forgotten in India. One writer on rhetoric mentions it by name in his Sahityadarpana as an example of the kind of prose composition called Akhyayika, and a verse passage is quoted from it in the older treatise on rhetoric, the Kavyaprakaca ; yet few native scholars had seen it for many years, although rare copies did linger unknown in some native libraries. Professor FitzEdward Hall first introduced it to the knowledge of European Orientalists in the Introduction to his edition of Subandhu's Vasavadatta, published at Calcutta in the Bibliotheca Indica in 1859 ; he discovered three MSS. more or less complete. An edition with an excellent Commentary was published at Jammu in Kashmir in 1879 (Samvat 1936), and this was reprinted with some variations in Bombay A. D. 1892 (Qaka 1814), and an independent edition of the text appeared in Calcutta in 1883, prepared by Pandit Vidyasagar. Professor Fuhrer has promised a new edition of the text from a careful collation of all the MSS. available in India, but his numerous engagements in connection with the Lucknow Museum have hitherto hindered him in carrying his undertaking to completion. We have had to do our best with the imperfect materials at our command, and we shall mention at the close of this preface