Kohala in the Sanskrit textual tradition (Study)
by Padma Sugavanam | 2011 | 95,782 words
This page relates ‘Manuscript Details of the Kohalamatam’ of the thesis dealing with Kohala’s contribution to the Sanskrit textual tradition of ancient Indian performing arts. The study focuses specifically on music (Gita), dance (Nritya), and drama (Natya). Although Kohala’s original works have not been found, numerous references to him across Lakshana-Granthas (treatises) and works by modern scholars indicate his significance.
Part 1(a).1 - Manuscript Details of the Kohalamatam
There are four manuscripts which bear the title ‘Kohalamatam’. This work is attributed to Kohala. The following are the details of the manuscripts. All the relevant manuscripts are available at the ORI Kariavattom, Tiruvananthapuram.
| S.No. | Title | Name of Library | Acc. No | PL/Paper |
| i. | Kohalamatam | ORI Tvm | 12643 | PL |
| ii. | Kohalamatam | ORI Tvm | C140B | PL |
| iii. | Kohalamatam | ORI Tvm | C1724 | PL |
| iv. | Kohalamatam | ORI Tvm | T822 | Paper |
Kohalamatam (12643) is a Palm leaf manuscript. It is moth eaten and in very bad condition. Even making copies of this manuscript was not possible due to the bad shape it was in. The manuscript has 66 folios and the text has been written in Malayālam language. The handwriting is very shaky and illegible. The text of Kohalamatam appears upto the 59th folio, after which there is a change in subject. This other text is in malayālam language.
Kohalamatam (C140B) is a palm leaf manuscript with 35 folios. The text is in malayālam script. The handwriting is shaky and not very clear. Till Fol. 17, there appears to be a different work which describes the origin of the universe etc. The text is incomplete.
Kohalamatam (C1724) is a palm leaf manuscript consisting of 98 folios. The folios are moth eaten and damaged. The text is written in malayālam script and the handwriting is shaky and illegible. This text is also incomplete.
Kohalamatam (T822) is a paper manuscript. This is a copy of C1724. The text is incomplete. The manuscript has 81 folios and the text is written in devanāgarī script. There are a few folios towards the end of the manuscript which contain matter in malayālam also. There also are a couple of pages in which only half the page has textual matter in devanāgarī script. The rest of the page has been completed, in Telugu script by a different hand. (M. Ramakrishna Kavi?) The cover page mentions the name of the scribe viz. K. Parameswaran Pillai and the date of writing this manuscript, 25-07-60. Also a certain K. R. Subramanya Sarma has compared it with the original. The margins in many pages contain references to other lakṣaṇagranthas written by M. R. Kavi. This study is based mainly on this manuscript.