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INTRODUCTION
freedom with the text. He has acted baselessly and arbitrarily. Let me make the point more clear. The 155th gathā mentions the number eight of Dikkumārīs of the Dakṣiṇakuta of Rucaka mountain. Of them, the names of the first five are given in the 155th gātha and the names of the remaining three are given in the 156th gāthā. This proves the originality of the 156th gathā of our edition. Again, those eight Dikkumārīs whose names are enumerated in the 157th gāthī in our edition are described in the 158th gāthā; that is, in the absence of the 157th gathā, the 158th gathā becomes redundant. This clearly points to the originality of the 157th gāthā. Though these two gāthās were available to Rathodji, he has not accepted them, considering them to be an interpolation. If he had tried to get at the total number 56 of Dikkumāris, accepted in the Jaina literature, he would have accepted these two gāthās in the body of the text.
As stated earlier, if all the corrupt readings were discussed, it would have led to the production of a separate book. I have discussed the corrupt readings accepted in 1 to 209 gāthās only, of the Jalore edition of this Prakirnaka in order to give to the learned who are acquainted with the high scholarship of Pām. Kalyanavijayaji an idea of the type of mistakes committed by the editors, as also to make them ponder over the question as to whether Kalyanavijayaji could be one of the editors of this Jalore edition fraught with corrupt readings. The objective for writing these notes is to demonstrate the fact that the utility of the edition of the old works is nil if the method adopted in editing them were such as is found in the Jalore edition of the Titthogāliya. I request the scholars to severely and critically evaluate the unscientifically edited old texts so that in the field of critically editing the old texts there may not further prevail a condition encouraging irresponsible and untrained persons to make encroachment on the field.
If most of the Prakirnakas were translated into Hindi and/or Gujarati with explanatory notes, the soul-ennobling and lifeenriching ancient wisdom will become available to the people, in the language they understand.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I offer my reverential salutation to myLate guru Agamaprabhākara Muni Śrī Punyavijayaji who trained me in the field of critically editing the old texts with his unbounded affection and grace; with his blessings I have mostly remained engaged in the pure activity.
After the death of Muni Śri Punyavijayaji, Munirāja Śrī Jambuvijayaji, an internationally renowned scholar of Indian
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