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EDITOR'S NOTE
mallaji of the Sthānakavāsi Jaina Sect has edited the text of the Nandisútra after having scrutinized different mss. Though he has invariably come across the reading accepted by us, he has put it in the foot-note and accepted the reading given by us in foot-note. In short, the reading available in the old mss. has been accepted in the editions prepared by Ray Dhanpatisimhji and Amolakarsiji, while all other editions follow Āc. Sāgarānandasūriji's edition in this connection and accept the reading not available in the old mss.
2. In olden days the mss. were used for reading the text before the religious audience and also for study etc. Sometimes readers used to write annotations or meaning in the margins; sometimes monks jotted down notes in their own mss. when their learned religious teacher explained the text extensively. These notes included even prose or verse quotations from different works. The learned copyists included these notes in their mss. as notes only, considering them to be useful to understand the concerned portion of the text, while others included them in the body of the text proper. Instances of the old mss. of the second type are not rare. The găthas which were interpolated in Sanghastuti (eulogy of the Order) and Sthavirāvali (Genealogy of Sthaviras) contained in the Nandisutra occur in the body of the text in almost all the mss. Only one ms. does not contain the interpolated gathās of Sthavirāvali and the four do not contain the interpolated gathās of Parşatsūtra (Sūtra No. 7). The topic being of the salutation to the old revered Sthaviras, some devoted scholar might have written note-găthas embodying salutation to those ancient Sthaviras whose mention is not made in the original gäthäs. And with the passage of time the gâthas written as notes found place in the body of the text proper in almost all the mss. The Nandicūrņi and the Nandiţikā of Ac. Haribhadra do not comment on these gåthås. Not only that but even the Tīká of Ac. Malayagirisūri, which has been composed in the 12th Cent. V.S., do not contain the commentary on these interpolated gathās. All this strongly disproves the originality of these găthās. Hence we have not included these gāthas in the text proper but noted down in footnotes at concerned places (p. 5 n. 1; p. 6 n. 11; p. 7 n. 10; p. 8 n. 9; p. 9 n. 3).
There is one reading (Sūtra 7 of this edition of the Nandisütra) which has been regarded as original since the date anterior to the author of the Cūrni. “nāṇassa parūvanam vocchań” (I shall now give the description of jñāna)--this reading occurs at the end of the text-portion constituting mangala and extending upto Sthavirāvali (Sů. 6 gāthā 43). But the description of jñāna starts from the Sūtra 8. Thus the reading occurring at the end of the 6th Sūtra has connection with the reading found at the beginning of the 8th Sutra.
n. 3).
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