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INTRODUCTION
vii
marians give an option in that regard. In my edition, therefore, I have kept invariably initial a As regards the double nasal, I have followed Prof. Jacobi's rule to keep a cerebral where its Sanskrit prototype has it and a dental in all other cases.
and are often indiscriminately substituted for and at in Mss., when the latter are followed by a conjunct. I usually retain the vowel as in the Sanskrit prototype if my best Mss. have it. The Mss. of the Jain Canon make a promiscuous use of a between two vowels, even when the Sanskrit prototype has nothing to do with it. I have in this case put the which alone is sanctioned and recognised by Prakrit grammarians. Lastly, in referring to standard and typical descriptive passages there is considerable variation in Mss; some of them give only the first and last word; some others mention a few additional words at the beginning and at the end. I have followed the best edition in referring to such passages.,
As I have already said above, the Nirayavaliyão form the last five of the twelve upangas of the Jain Canon. It would seem that originally these five works had an independent existence, but, being of small extent, were put together,and thus they became the five sections or vaggas of one work (see paras 4 and 5) under a common title Nirayavaliyão. The contents would show that this title is true to sense
