such a manner that those who possess a working knowledge of the Sanskrit language, could read, understand and appreciate the thousand names glorifying Gopāala.
Numerous Mss. of GSN are deposited in archives, Oriental Mss. Libraries, Temple collections and private possessions. These are available at Adyar. Allahabad. Alwar, Bharatpur, Bombay, Calcutta, Dacca, Jodhpur, Kotah, London, Madras, Mithila Mysore. Nepal. Paris, Pune, Rangpur, Thanjavur. Udaipur, Ujjain, Vishvabharati (Santiniketan) and other places in India and abroad.
The text of GSN was printed in Bombay with Hindi commentaries in 1833,1912 and 1923-24. It was also printed in the Brhatstotraratnākara (Part I), published from Madras. Thirty-one printed books are available in the holdings of India Office Library. From these texts and Mss., it can be seen that GSN is excerpted from the Sammohanatantra of the Rudrayāmala. Mm. Gopinath Kavi Raj in his Bibliography of the Tantrasaṁhitā (Lucknow. 1972), refers to three Sammohanatantras, all of which were said to be narrated by Lord Siva to Parvatī. Although different versions of GSN were drawn from the Tantras, the present text has to be differentiated from the other books bearing the same tittle.
The critical edition of GSN, placed before the public and elite. which we have constituted now, is based on three Mss. well preserved in GOML (Madras), TMSSML (Thanjavur) and the Sarasvati Bhavan Library (S. Sanskrit University, Varanasi) besides two books printed from Bombay in 1894 and 1963 and one from Dwaraka (the last one handed over to us by Professor K.S. MURTY), On a careful scrutiny of several Mss. recen- sions, the editors felt that, to bring out a simpler version of GSN, it was sufficient to consult the above mentioned Mss, and printed books, since the text constituted by us, agrees well with the majority of readings found in many other Mss. To cite an instance, two Mss. deposited in G. N. JHA K. S. V. Mss. Library at Allahabad bearing accession numbers 7040/995 and 10705/1581 bear striking resemblance to the Bombay and Thanjavur Mss. A commentary on GSN, written by Sivadayala SARMA is available in the S.Sanskrit University (accession numbers 19457
