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vi
NIRAYA YALIYÃO
of Dr. Warren, his edition is now of interest only to an antiquarian. The two other editions are un-- critical and supply no help whatever to the reader. Besides, all the three editions are long out of print.
In preparing the text of this edition I haveutilized all the three above-mentioned editions for what they were worth. In addition I have fully collated a manuscript of the bare text (called A in the footnotes) preserved at the Bhandarkar Institute, Poona. I have occasionally consulted another manuscript of the bare text from the same Institute, but could not derive much help from it. I also consulted six Mss. of Candrasūri's commentary on the text and an avacūri in old Marwari language from the same source. I derived much help from other texts of the Jain Canon where passages from this: text were repeated. I trust, therefore, that 1 have been able to give a better text than the one found in previous editions.
In recording varients from the above material at the foot of the page, I have made a judicious selection. I feel it does not serve any useful purpose to note down every possible varient of a Prakrit text, although I do not undervalue such record for the understanding of Mss. tradition. For instance, no two manuscripts will agree in recording the initial 7 or in a Jain text, as Jain Gram
