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THE POET AND HIS PATRON
2.
Text--constitution.
I have followed the following principles in constituting the text of Ņāyakumāracariu:
1. I have, as a rule, adopted in the text the reading on which all or most of the MSS. agreed. But in a few cases the reading of two or even one MS is preferred to that of the majority where it seemed to be justified by the superiority in sense and suitability. For the same reason, I have even given a tentative reading in preference to the agreed reading of all the MSS. This, however, has been done in a very few cases, and there also when the change made was of one letter only.
2. As the MSS. that use 77 are not at all consistent in its use and as no principle can be evolved from them for discriminating between and ut, the latter has been used throughout, for the sake of uniformity, and the variations have not been recorded.
3. The MSS are somewhat, inconsistent in the use of a anda. In this case the choice has been made according to the Sanskrit or vernacular equivalents and the variants have not been recorded.
4. 75 and 71 are found so written in the MSS. as to be frequently indis. tinguishable. Generally it has been easy to find out which of them is meant, but the problem has, sometimes, become puzzling when oither gives sense, for example argou or later in 1, 3, 5. In such cases only, the alternative reading is included in footnotes, otherwise not.
5. क्ख, g and 5 have been frequently found written as double ख, doubled and double . These also have not been noticed in the footnotes.
6. The MSS. show some inconsistency in the insertion of y between two vowels and MS. E, as said above, generally avoids it. These variations have, in some cases, been noted but frequently ignored.
7. As we have no device to distinguish short g from long 5 and as readings vary between short and the latter has, generally, but not invariably, been used where the metre required a short vowel. These variations have been ignored in the footnotes.
8. Variations due to obvious mistakes and slips of the copyist have not been noted, but readings of doubtful meaning have been.
9. Other minor variations such as of °F and El and of anusvāra have been ignored. In all other cases the variants have been carefully recorded.
3. The Poet and bis Patron. Much information about the parentage and the works of the author has already been published (C. P. Cat. intro, and extracts; AUS. p. 157–185; JSS vol.
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