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The earlier editions were rather perfunctory about citation of the sources from which they drew the stanzas. In the index to this edition source of an epigram is given as far as it could be traced. It would be quite out of the question to trace every stanza to a definite author, seeing that most of the verses have been current for a millennium or so, during which the greater portion have been known only from citations, often anonymous and sometimes self-contradictory, in the older anthologies. But at least the reader has now something to go upon and can make his own further researches with more of a start than was given by our previous editions.
In conclusion, it is a great pleasure to thank the management and the workers of this Press for their cheerful co-operation during a period of hardship, both internal and external for all of us. I also acknowledge my gratitude to the ever-obliging Librarian Shri D. N. Marshall, M. A., Dip. Lib. for access to the Bombay University's collection of books and manuscripts. To my friend Prof. D. D. Kosambi of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research I owe many valuable suggestions for possible improvements within the framework of the original plan of the edition.
Śästri Department, NIRNAYA SAGAR Press, Bombay, May 1, 1952)
N. R. ACHARYA
