________________
INTRODUCTION
which are preserved in the South or in southern scripts. The readings, noted in the foot-notes, are sufficiently exhaustive. Apparent scribal blunders are ignored; but the two other categories of misreadings are sufficiently illustrated. If it is felt that some of them do not deserve to be noted, I can only add that I have erred on the safer side.
2. CONSTITUTION AND PRESENTATION
OF THE TEXT AND CHAYA
Though classified here according to a slightly different plan, similar scribal errors were found in the Mss. of Kamsavaho and Usāņiruddhas which have been already edited by me. As in them, the Prākrit text has been presented here in a standardised form with regard to orthography and other external details; and the method of text-constitution is nearly the same. The Camdalehā is a late work, to be assigned to the closing period of Prākrit literature; so the grammatical standards, elaborated in earlier Prākrit grammars, cannot be altogether ignored. On the whole, when correcting the threefold scribal lapses, it is expected that the language of the text should conform to the recognised linguistic tendencies of Prākrits and to the rules laid down by Prākrit grammarians. This is a broad principle, though every detail has to be scrutinised on its own merits, at least in some cases. The tendencies of scribal errors being once detected, minor corrections could be made with the
the chāyā, in view of the metrical needs in verses, in the light of illustrations noted by Pischel?, and after comparing the forms with those in the text and variants presented by Konow in his edition of the Kappūramamjarī which has served as a model for the Camdalehā. Utmost fidelity to the ms. is my guiding principle,
1 Kassavaho, Hindi Grantha Ratnākara Kāryālaya, Bombay 1940;
Usāṇiruddham: A Prākrit Kävya, Journal of the University of Bombay, X, 2, Bombay 1941. The latter is also edited by Sastri and Raja, Adyar Library, Madras 1943. All the references to Pischel, unless otherwise stated, have in view his Grammatik der Prākrit-Sprachen, Strassburg 1900; a complete Index of the Prākrit words in it is prepared by Wickremasinghe and published in
the Indian Antiquary. 3 Harvard Oriental Series, IV, Cambridge, Mass. 1901. The Präkrit
text is edited by Konow and an English translation is added by Lanman.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org