पृष्ठ:मेरी आत्मकहानी.djvu/१०६

मेरी आत्मकहानी

१०१

 

Writing of Tulsidas himself It is said that Tulsidas made two copies of his Ramayan one of which he took to Rajapur in Banda Rajapur manuscript in described as No 26 in the Report for 1901. It does not appear to bear any date and contains no more than the second canto (Ajodhya Kand) But for some water-marks, it is in fairly good condition. There is a story that it was once stolen, but the thief, when pursued, threw the entire bundle into the Jumuna, hence only one book, the Ajodhya Kand could be ressued (Report 1000, page 8)- a story which the conditon of the manuscript fragment would seem to corroborate. Mr. Shyam Sundar Das, who has compared the two very old manuscripts, considers that they are both in the same handwriting, and were written by Tulsi Das himself But by adding two reduced facsimile pages of each of the two manuscripts to his Report for 1901, he has made it possible for any one to judge for himself. If his opinion should prove to be correct, we should be in possession of portions of both the traditional autographs of Tulsi Das and it would follow that the Malihabad copy which is also claimed by its owner to be in his handwriting cannot be genuine.