V.S. Sukthankar was a renowned scholar and Indologist who made significant contributions to the study of the Mahabharata. He was instrumental in bringing to light and analyzing several important manuscripts of the Mahabharata, which helped in the understanding of the epic.

Contribution to the study of Mahabharata

1. Discovery and analysis of manuscripts

- Sukthankar discovered several important manuscripts of the Mahabharata, including the Critical Edition, which is considered the most authoritative version of the epic.
- He analyzed and compared multiple versions of the Mahabharata to identify the core narrative and the various additions and interpolations made over time.

2. Textual criticism

- Sukthankar was a pioneer in the field of textual criticism, which involves analyzing the text of a literary work to identify errors, inconsistencies, and changes made over time.
- He applied this approach to the Mahabharata, identifying several instances of textual corruption and interpolations.

3. Translation and annotation

- Sukthankar translated and annotated several sections of the Mahabharata, providing valuable insights into the meaning and significance of the epic.
- His translations and annotations were based on a deep understanding of the language, culture, and historical context of ancient India.

4. Contribution to the Critical Edition

- Sukthankar played a key role in the preparation of the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata, which involved the collation and comparison of several manuscripts to arrive at a standardized version of the epic.
- He also provided extensive annotations and cross-references to help readers navigate the complex narrative and thematic structure of the epic.

Overall, Sukthankar's contributions to the study of the Mahabharata have been invaluable in deepening our understanding of this epic work of Indian literature. His meticulous scholarship and attention to detail have helped to establish the Mahabharata as one of the greatest literary works of all time.

Vishnu Sitaram Sukthankar, also known as V. S. Sukthankar, (4 May 1887 – 21 January 1943) was an eminent Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit. He is principally known as the General Editor of the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata published by the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune, India
In 1925, Sukthankar assumed the General Editorship of the Critical Edition of the Mahabharata at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune. After years of tireless labour and the assistance of several copyists and fellow scholars, the first fascicule of the Adi Parva (i.e., first of the eighteen Books of the Mahabharata) was published in 1927, followed by the entire Adi Parva in 1933.[5] The work involved collating about 60 partial manuscripts of the Mahabharata in ten different scripts belonging to two major recensions (Northern and Southern). A lucid and detailed account of his methods of Textual Criticism may be found in the `Prolegomena' to the 1933 volume. Some of his writings on the Mahabharata have been collected in the first volume of the 'Sukthankar Memorial Edition'.[6