________________
INTRODUOTION
xlii
Pischel himself notes the difficulty in hitting the true reading in the manuscripts used by him. Even his manuscript 'B' which he regards as very correct constantly interchanges and a. Besides other mistakes due to the confusion of letters, in the manuscripts words are combined and separated without any regard to their sense. The copyists employed being not generally scholars such errors are inevitable. It is for this reason perhaps that at the end of the manuscripts is generally found a statement of the copyists which has run into a proverb 'yad drstam tallikhitam? (As seen so written)-a statement made by the scribes to save their own skin. A critical editor, however, is not justifed in holding the author responsible for the possible errors of the ignorant: scribes. We would not have complained so much of the strong remarks of Pischel had his readings been supported by all the manuscripts used. Far from it. The manuscript B which he regards as 'very correct', the manuscript F which, he says, 'with the exception of a few trifling differences agrees closely with B' and the manuscript G which 'gives the best text of the commentary' do not generally support the readings adopted by Pischel but give readings that show a marked improvement in the sense. If the illustrative gāthās of Hemacandra which have appeared to Pischel as examples of 'extreme absurdity' or 'nonsense' are read correcting the errors made by the copyists in the manner explained above they will yield very good sense. A few examples of such corrected readings are given below to make the point clear. A complete list of the readings that yield a good sense when thus corrected is given in the list of the improved readings annexed to this section as an Appendix, Reading adopted by Pischel
अन्माइआइ दिखावह तुह रे अवस्थरारिहइ । arafas fora TÊT a fefaent waits a l 1. 22. 20.
