Studies in Indian Art c11.s2.3

c11.s2.3

Arjuna as Bṛhannaḍā appears in female disguise wearing ornaments which consisted of a pair of kuṇḍalas and a pair of beautiful golden bracelets. The phrase prākāra-vapra qualifying kuṇḍala appears to have presented much difficulty. Amongst the variant readings we find that the only Kashmiri manuscript written in Śāradā characters available for this Parva substitutes प्राकारवक्ष: for प्राकारवप्रे, but it stands alone in this reading, which appears to be an emendation of the original knotty text. The redactor perhaps ingeniously thought that प्राकार and वप्र being synonyms, one of them was superfluous; and since प्राकार does lend itself as a suitable उपमान for a hero's ideal chest, the correction naturally suggested itself. The three Devanāgarī manuscripts (DI-3) got rid of the difficulty by changing the text to स्थित्वा च वप्रे, which conveys little sense in the present context. It should be mentioned, however, that the remaining nine Devanāgarī manuscripts collated for the Critical Edition faithfully adhere to the old text tradition by retaining प्राकारवप्रे, although its satisfactory explanation may not have been grasped. The South Indian recensions, evidently to obviate the difficulty of suitably explaining प्राकारवप्रे, changed it to प्रवाळचित्रे, which is of poor value from the point of view of an original reading. The learned Editor of the Critical Edition of the Virāṭa Parvan must be congratulated for retaining प्राकारवप्रे as the traditional text, although he does so with a wavy underline. This reading, besides respecting the overwhelming testimony of the manuscripts is by far the best and the happiest for illuminating the verse with an original beautiful meaning.