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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
xiv
PREFACE
Banerji. There can be little doubt, as the original stone clearly proves, that the correct reading is no other than Hathisā(ī) ha-sampain)ātasa dhutunā.
I cannot, however, claim that finality has been reached or can be reached. If the following pages serve to guide the study of the Hāthi-Gumphā and other old Brāhmi inscriptions along the right path, I shall have sufficient reasons to rejoice.
But I deeply regret an omission on p. 46, namely, the rendering of Arahato nisīdiya samīpe pabhāre (I. 15), "on a slope in the vicinity of the Ārhata (cave)-dwellings." The "Additions and Corrections” will indicate where this is to be inserted.
My grateful thanks are due to Prof. S. Radhakrishnan, President of the Council of Post-Graduate Teaching in Arts, in urging me to prepare a critical edition of the old Brāhmi inscriptions, making it useful to the students and discussing the readings and interpretations of all previous scholars and epigraphists. Mr. Narain Chandra Kundu, Conseil Agrée, Chandernagore, has rendered me a distinct service by translating for me required passages from M. Sylvain Lévi's article in JA. Among my colleagues in the University, Mr. Sailendranath Mitra, Dr. N. P. Chakrabarty, Dr. P. C. Bagchi, Dr. S. K. Chatterji and Dr. H. C. Raychaudhuri have helped me with their valuable suggestions but for which my treatment of the subject would have been, in some places, far different from what it now is. I am indebted also to the Hon'ble Mr. Ramaprasad Mookerjee, Mr. (now Prof.) R. D. Banerji, Dr. Radhakumud Mookerjee, Prof. S. K. Ayengar, Dr. G. N. Banerji, Mr. Cbaru Chandra Roy, and Rai Bahadur Ramaprasad Chanda for the keen interest taken by each of them in this work. I am deeply indebted to Dr. Stella Kramrisch for her note on the reliefs in the Udayagiri and Khaņdagiri caves without which the treatment of the question of chronology of the old Brāhmi inscriptions, their authors and receptacles would
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