________________ Introduction XV 22, 133-34 and 194. A few changes appear to have been made with a distinct purpose: It seems that the author wanted to impress that thought or mental condition was the most important of the four constituents of Religion charity, penance, conduct and thought. He, in fact, appears to have made it the central teaching of his whole narrative which he has emphatically mentioned at the beginning, corroborated effectively in the course of his narrative at various places and conclusively proved at the end by a clear statement of it from the lips of the hero who cites himself there as an illustration to the point (190-193). The introduction of Mahaviraswami as the narrator of the account to his pupil Gautama (see stanzas 1 to 8 ) is also an innovation of the poet, intentionally made not only to create an atmosphere of antiquity round the story, but to convey home to the readers the supreme importance of mental purity of thought over everything else by implying that even the Prophet himself testified to it by emphasizing it to his pupil Gautama. 10. As expressed above, ten manuscript copies were used in the collaConclusion. tion work of the present edition designated 37, 4, a, 7, 9,
