________________
CHAPTER 2
2. 1 Method of reconstruction
In the edition (Gathās 1-50) I have attempted to reconstruct a text as closely to the original as the available MSS allow. The arguments used in the reconstruction are basically derived from the stemma. The MSS, which ultimately go back to one single MS, the archetype, are divided into two branches, consisting of the Third South-Indian recension, on the one hand, and the Jaina and Vulgata-recensions, on the other. Another result of the stemma is the conclusion that the order of the Gāthās is most faithfully preserved in the latter two recensions. However, each of the two is characterized by certain transpositions of larger as well as smaller sequences of Gathās of the text of the archetype. This text can only be established again by identifying these sequences and restoring them to their original positions. In doing so the Third South-Indian recension plays an important role as its text was based on a selection from that of the archetype. Traces of the order of the Gathās of the archetype can still be clearly perceived. However, such a reconstruction can only be partly successful. For example, in the Vulgata a group of Gathäs somewhere after 433 was apparently displaced and transferred to the sixth Sataka (see the point opposite 321 in Appendix III. Note that the order in the Jaina-recension is considerably disturbed as well). It is impossible, though, to determine whether the part of the text which was displaced began immediately with 434 or only with 435. A suitable principle for dealing with such uncertainties remains to be found.
In the part of the text edited here no serious problems in reconstructing the original order of the Gāthās occur. The differences between the Jaina and Vulgata-recensions consist only of some transpositions of individual Gathās in the Vulgata. Thus, Gāthās *31, *32, *36 and 47, which in the Jaina-recension (R) occur as 31, 32, 36 and 47, are in the Vulgata (G) found as 188, 194, 189 and 190 respectively. Their occurrence in the Third South-Indian recension as 69, 70, 74 and 84 respectively shows that their position in the Vulgata at the end of the second Śataka is the result of some independent development in that recension.
A different matter is the question which Gāthās belonged to the text
