xxvi AMARAKOŚA of Svāmin and others in Bengali script have the words 'iti svargavargaḥ at the end of the Natyavarga.1 This is peculiar to the Bengali MSS. and not found in MSS. in other scripts. Moreover this is opposed to the statement of Amara himself who, in the penultimate verse ending the first Kānda, has clearly stated, उक्तं स्वर्व्योमदिक्कालघीवाक्छब्दादिनाट्यकम् । (p. 183) dividing the sections as Svar, Vyoman, etc. and further has the concluding line: स्वरादिकाण्डः प्रथमः साङ्ग एव समर्थितः । Thus the names given by Amara to the three Kända-s are Svarādi, Bhūmyādi and Sāmānya respectively. The text of Amara has been preserved with a fidelity which is not remarkable if we consider the rare attention it has received during the last ten centuries.' 2 But the MSS. show a very large number of variants and they are generally attributed to a deliberate transfer from the commentaries to the text or due to mistakes committed by scribes. This is possible as Svāmin, Malli. and other commentators add a good many lines supplementing the text and ignorant scribes. may have transferred them to the text. There is also the possibility of confusion due to the similarity of certain sounds. A classical illustration of a variant in the text due to this cause is yadavam dhanam which Subhūticandra has adopted as the text in his Kamadhenu whereas pādabandhanam is the text adopted by Svāmin and the later commentators. सुभूतिटीकायां तु यादवं घनमिति पठितम् (Malli, p. 589) Sometimes transfer of whole verses has taken place from the commentaries. In the first Kāṇḍa there are thus a number of verses and hemistichs, e.g. on Visņu, Lakṣmi, etc. ¹ ibid. 2 Ak., Borooah's ed., Introd. p. v.
