I am following the Moolam the Gita Press edition for my reading. I have the 3 volume Gita Press version with a high class translation into English also. The text is the same.
I also have two Kannada versions, one in big print for parayanam and another e-book with a detailed commentary written by scholars.
Then there is the eminently executed the IITK online Valmiki Ramayana.
The shlokas and sargas have started showing discrepancies between editions. Some shlokas are missing. Some have different words.
Take the last shloka from y'day. I wrote
राज्यं स त्वं निगृह्णीष्व भरतेन प्रसादितः।
I was not totally happy since निगृह्णीष्व means to take hold of and control. Perhaps the word ought to be just accept. I then checked the Kannada and IITK sites. They give the word as प्रतिगृह्णीष्व - accept. So I changed it last night.
This morning I wanted to check on what basis the Gita Press ed. had a less suitable word. I did some research. It seems निगृह्णीष्व is quite in vogue in this context! The Apte Sanskrit Dictionary quotes this exact shloka with निगृह्णीष्व. (Apte is like a god for sanskrit students)
The Upasarga (prefix) नि has a slightly negative connotation. I decided to check. There is a monumental work called Upasargaarthachandrika. I checked and found the reference! See:
So did Jabali really tell Rama to grab the kingdom with both hands?
I then checked what is called the Baroda critical edition which is accepted by scholars as the authoritative version (I don't normally take shlokas from there as it is voluminous therefore for me a big online effort.)
See what it says:
So finally I have decided to stick to
प्रतिगृह्णीष्व.
🙏🙏🙏
॥ श्रीरामजयम् ॥
