Evaluating the Critical Edition of the Mahābhārata:

Inferential Mileage and the Apparatus Materials

Abstract

Austin evaluates the methodologies and outcomes of the Critical Edition project, especially its reliance on stemmatics and inferential reconstruction. He raises concerns about textual gaps, editorial assumptions, and inconsistent treatment of variants in the apparatus. While acknowledging the project's achievements, Austin underscores the need to read the Critical Edition not as a finished product but as an open archive inviting deeper interpretive work.