Heport oil the Machem'fc Ma^iuf^cripfs. 



[ ArniL 



Remarl:.—\ have been infonneil tli.it a prose version complete was 

 made of Camban's poem hy Srinava.a pVUn, for R. Clarke, Esq. part 

 of the expense having been borne by J adi,e Gwillnn, and J . G walkin, 

 Esq. I have not seen that version. 



7. Bamwjana vdchya a prose version of the Ramai/ana, No. 6.— 

 Countermark 6. 



In the title Cavi (or poetical) is added, but. this is wron^;-, the whole 

 being prose, oT an ordinary kind. It is a raiher large manuscript, in 

 good order, and complete. 



A man of the Van ya class is said to have gone every night to bear the 

 Rimai/ana of Vd'mi a recited and explained by a Brahmwi, accord- 

 ing to the usual custom of such public r^Liitations ; and the next day to 

 have v^ ritten down the substance of what he had heard. By this means 

 he completed an epitome of the original work ; which hence familiarly 

 acquired the name of Fd!mtca Ramdi/nna ; because following Vdlmica 

 implicitly, which th'^ poet Camban did not do. It is not requisite, I be- 

 lieve, for me to abstract the contents ; a general notion of the story of 

 the Ramdi/ana being, it is presumed, very common. 



The book is entered in Des Ctd.vol. I. p. K)5. Art. IV. as "a prose 

 version of the Ranrn ana attributed also to Kumban;'' by whom attribut- 

 ed is not slated. The Ram af/anam hv Cnm'm^i, is a first rat(? work; this 

 one of very medio TO character and pretensions. There are two other 

 prose versions ; but neither of them by Camban, who was strictly and 

 solely a poet. 



8. Ramaijana, another (incomplete) copy. 



This book it may be supposed originally contained the whole of 

 the second division of the Ranuu/ana, or the Yudha Candum, and 

 Uttara Cajidam, but in its present state it wants 11)1) leaves from 

 the begining of the l^« /^a C«/tt/fm, and is thence cotnplete to tlie en^^ 



the Uttara Can lam. At the close there is a superscription signifying 

 that it was written, or compiled, by Vasudeva-pillai for Dr. Mitchell* 

 The said Vasu:Jeva-pillai, I am informed, w^as a schoolmaster at Tanjore. 



This version, like the last mentioned copy (No, 6) follows the original 

 of Vdlmica ; but it is much more full. This imperfect manuscript is 

 equal, in size, to the whole of the said epitome. 



