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INTRODUCTION
P uses almost studiously dental n both initially and in a conjunct group; while J almost uniformly uses cerebral n, initial, medial and conjunct.
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A careful study of the special lines and readings of B shows its tendency of smoothening metrical unevenness (see footnotes on 76, 193, 435 etc.), of eschewing a grammatical irregularity (see footnotes on 147. 153, 437, 441, 1158 etc.) and of simplifying an obscurity (see footnotes on 80, 266, 348, 904, 1174 etc.), almost always an effort being made to present a flowing, lucid and easily intelligible gāthā. Taking into consideration all such cases and viewing them collectively one suspects whether they are improvements on the earlier text either by our commentator or by some predecessor of his. A categorical judgement has to be withheld till some more MSS. of the B group are available.
The text of Lilavai is being edited here for the first time. So the editor has not thrown out any gāthās as spurious from the body of the text. The question of their authenticity is discussed and the conclusions are presented in the Introduction and Notes elsewhere. Any gatha which is found in two MSS. is included in continuous numbering, while those found only in one Ms. are shown with starred additional numbers *1, *2, etc.
Though the readings are noted, as far as possible, with words as the units, it is the syllable that is usually treated as the unit of text-variation. In constituting the critical text the following broad principles are generally adhered to. The reading agreed upon by all the three MSS. is the best, and, under the circumstances, the most genuine, perhaps coming from the author himself. If this is not possible, the reading common to any two MSS. is adopted. Preference is always given to J or P above B, and between the former two it is generally J that is preferred. It is only in a few cases that the readings of B have been adopted in the text to avoid an extremely unintelligible or corrupt reading (see gathās 1 reading 3, 71 reading 1, etc.). If the editor felt inclined to suggest emendations, not quite within the scope of the available readings, he has done so either in the square brackets in the footnotes or in the Notes at the end.
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As noted above, there is no agreement between the MSS. with regard to writing n or n. J almost always writes n, initial, medial and double, P writes n initially and also nn in a conjunct group, but n medially (excepting in words anala, anila). The readings of B do not show any fixed tendency in this respect; but they agree more with those of P than
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