________________
Introduction 11
ed from gaid" to drink," and hence it must be written ige. I have since found the word actually spelled 13 in Trivikrama's Prakrit Grammar, the Mss, of which are written in the Grantha character. Sometimes the Sanskrit was my only guide. Thus in i. 98, the authority of the Mss. seems to call for the reading 38|, which is also given by the Mss. of the Päiyalachchhi v. 217. The Sanskrit az, however, decides in favour of 3. Likewise in ii. 11, it was alone the Sanskrit which moved me to write 11e and not ferica. In other cases I had recourse to the modern Indian languages. Thus in viii. 29, which is wanting in Eand G, I have written सिंढा and not सिंटा, or सिंडा, only in consideration of Sindhi सीढ fem. a whistle, whistling,' a reading which is confirmed by I.
The Mss. often agree remarkably in blunders of all kind. Thus at p. 68, 14, (p. 78, 1. 14 of this ed.) they all, without exception, read yt: ita, though there cannot be any doubt that a: a must be written. It was more difficult to make out the correct reading in cases like that of vi. 127. Here AEF read महालवक्खो , the rest महावलक्खो , and with a singular persistence this reading is repeated by all the commented Mss. ( except I) in the cornmentary and the example. Here again etymology helped me. The Sanskrit equivalent is *महालयपक्ष; so महालवक्खो had to be chosen.
Now I am fully aware that after all etymology is no safe guide; and I fear that I have adopted more than once a wrong reading, misled by a false etymology. To get the original meaning of a word was often very difficult, and in the present state of our knowledge of the middle and modern Indian languages not rarely quite impossible. In such cases I was quite left to my linguistic instinct. Thus at i. 144, example 111, I have written थुडुकिअमुही. Here BG read घुडुंकिय, CH वुडंकिय, F डंकिय. As I could make nothing of any of these readings, I supposed that was a mistake for
; and turning to this letter I found the word in question at v. 31, but at the same time almost as many various readings as I had Mss. at my disposal. In the text A has aski, BF CT, CE,
D HI, E YETİ, GGfj, HE I GR. In the commentary BCF read yfi, GS, H afai, IjSj. Taking into consideration the various readings of i. 144, 111, S T seemed to me to be the correct spelling, which I adopted accordingly. Words of this kind occur very frequently, and I hope I shall be pardoned if sometimes I should have failed to hit the correct reading
Another great difficulty was raised by the examples which Hemacandra adds at the end of the commentary on each stanza of the Ekārtbasabdas. These examples are either void of all sense, or of an incredible stupidity. It was not indeed easy to compile examples from words combined in the same stanza by the mere chance of alphabetical arrangement and the equal number of syllables. But even granting this, Hemacandra might, I think, have done his task far better; or, if the examples were composed by his disciples, he should not have admitted them into his work. In a few cases he has given two examples on one stanza, and had he done this throughout, we should not have to complain so much of the extreme
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
Jain Education International
