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आचाराङ्ग
Professor J. C. Wright
SOAS 10-10-95
School of Oriental and African Studies
University of London Dear Dr. Chandra,
Thank you very much for directing to me a cop of your "Restoration... This is certainly most instructive and I am glad it is now more widely available. It is a sad situation, however, that you find yourself unable to verify the readings from photographs.
As to comment, I would venture the opinion that subsequent editors ought not to have ignored Jacobis's useful procedure for representing the oldest available readings, i.e. italics to indicate inconsistency (nātam bhavati, etc.). Schubring failed to profit from Jacobi's insights and mistakes, and MJV from Schubring's, so far as I can see. In the present state of knowledge it seems very important to distinguish between readings found in various sorts of verse and those in prose, does it not ? You have made me realize that I simply do not know why Jacobi and Schubring rejected ekesim and annesim readings : this does not help me in trying to decide whether they were wrong or right to do so.
I suppose one ought to insist on the idea that a distinction is necessary between the MJV procedure, which may be on the right lines when editing commentaries, and the Jacobi procedure for registering basic readings. Again, my thanks for your letter and for the book.
Yours Sincerely
J. C. Wright
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