Contents

Data Source: BnF Archives et manuscrits

• 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.