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INTRODUCTION.
xliii
it must not be forgotten that most and the best MSS. of Baudhayana's Sūtras are found in Southern India. There are also some faint indications that the Andhra country is the particular district to which Baudhayana belonged. For his repeated references to voyages by sea and his rule regarding the duty payable on goods imported by sea show that he must have lived in a coast district where sea-borne trade flourished, and the fact that he uses the Andhra recension of the Taittirîya Aranyaka makes it probable that he was an inhabitant of the eastern coast.
My estimate of the distance between Baudhâyana and Åpastamba and of that between the latter and the historical period of India has been given in the Introduction to Apastamba, pp. xxii and xliii, and I have nothing further to add on that subject. The oldest witness for the existence of the Srauta-sútra of Baudhầyana is its commentator Bhavasvâmin, whom Dr. Burnell places in the eighth century A. D. The Dharma-sútra is first quoted by Vigñanesvara, circiter 1080-1100 A.D. Several of the passages adduced by him are, however, not traceable in the MSS.
As regards the materials on which the translation is based, I had at my disposal six MSS. of the text and two copies of Govindasvâmin's commentary, the Bodhầyanîya-dharmavivarana', one of which (C. I.) gives the text also. These MSS. belong to two chief groups, a northern and a southern one. The northern group contains two subdivisions. The first comprises (1) D., a MS. bought by me for the Government of Bombay at Ahmadâbâd (no. 6 of the Dekhan College collection of 1868–69), and about one hundred or one hundred and fifty years old ; (2) P., an old MS. of my own collection, bought in 1865 at Puna; (3, 4) B. and Bh., two modern transcripts, made for me in Baroda and Bombay. Among these, D. alone is of real value, as P., B., and Bh. faithfully reproduce all its clerical errors and add a good many new ones. The second subdivision of the northern group is represented by K., a modern transcript, made for
1 It ought to be noted that in the south of India the forms Bodhayana and Bodhayaniya are invariably used for Baudhâyana and Baudhayanîya. But it seems to me that the southerners are in error, as the affix ayana requires vriddhi in the first syllable,
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| SR No. | 007674 |
| Book Title | Dhammapada |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Max Muller |
| Publisher | Oxford |
| Publication Year | 1881 |
| Total Pages | 2540 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 45 MB |