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INTRODUCTION
11
J and P should be recorded as exhaustively as it is necessary and possible. In the first forme (pp. 1-8) all syllabic variations are noted meticulously; but in subsequent formes variants arising out of va-sruti, inorganic t, u or o, i or e, n or ņ and others of this type are not fully recorded, excepting in crucial contexts. In some cases obvious corruptions are noted, because they go to confirm what the basic reading might have been. If the readings given are felt to be more than necessary, it is pleaded that the editor has erred on the safer side. And there are valid reasons for this erring as well: we have only two Mss. of the Kuvalayamālā, and they show such variations as need preservation. Obvious scribal errors, of course, are skipped over. The Prākrit phonology has such potent possibilities that what is a wrong form to us, and according to our grammatical standards, may show its counter-part in some dialect or the other of the New-Indo-Aryan, which is being so zealously studied now-a-days. This meticulous recording of variants has a special value in the Paiśācī and Apabhramśa passages and in the contexts of the colloquial conversations and illustrations of regional dialects which are a speciality of this work. Lastly, almost single handed as I have worked, I am quite conscious of my limitations as well as possible lapses in handling the material of this great Prākrit Campū which is being edited and published for the first time; and hence, I must leave the maximum evidence for a subsequent rigorous and searching connoisseur who would like to improve on my text. In a few places, where the readings are improved upon or emended, the requisite data are given in the foot-notes. All the additions, in one or the other Ms., are included in the critical text. If the passages in P and J are obviously alternatives, one is adopted in the text and the other is relegated to the foot-notes.
Further both the Mss., J and P, are so closely and compactly written that it is hard to distinguish prose and verse. In the prose matter, the placing of dandas is not uniform in both: in short, it is highly irregular in P. I have adjusted them to suit the meaning and context. Wherever a shorter pause was needed, enumeration was to be indicated, a vocative was to be separated (after the last vocative, if there are many words in that case), I have put a comma. The object is to help a clearer understanding and bring better force in conversation. Single or double inverted commas are used to mark out direct statements or thoughts. Hyphens are used to separate words in a compound expression, but if there is uncertainty or sleșa in any expression, they are not introduced. If the initial consonant of the following word is phonetically changed, the hyphen is hesitatingly used in such cases. The verses are not numbered, but for referential purposes the lines are numbered (1, 3, 6 etc.) on each page; and the foot-notes have a reference to these lines. Going from line to line, one can easily detect for what portion there is a variant reading. Whenever both the Mss. put numbers for enumerated topics, they are retained in the constituted text. The whole text is continuous, and there are no chapters or prakaranas. For referential convenience and for neat presentation (rather than necessarily at appropriate contexts), the matter is divided into paragraphs in somewhat an arbitrary manner.
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