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ten)
PREFACE
the remaining ones below. And in cases when all the Mss. disagree on a particular reading, grammar, metre and general style of the authar should be the criteria of selecting the reading
This is normally the method which I have followed in editing the present text. On examining the text one will find that the three above-described Mss. of this work presnt abundant variants. What is more, the text of the Rāsaka as given in B. and the words of the text which are found interspersed with Laşmicandra's commentary contained in the same Ms. differ at places from each other. As all the the three Mss. are undated, there is no evidence to consider any of them as older and more authentic than the rest. Hence generally I have accepted two criterions for the selection of the reading. The first is to accept that reading in the constituted text which is correct and found in the two Mss., the reading of the remaining Ms. being recorded below. The second is when the three Mss. mutually disagree, to select that reading which appeared to me superior to others from a metrical, contextual, or stylistic view-point, the other two readings being given below.
There is no sort of consistency in the variants in each of the three Mss. No uniformity is to be found in any one of the Mss. regarding grammatical forms or orthography. In all the Mss. a substantive of the A-stem is found now inflected, now uninflected. In the case of verbal forms also sometimes we find a fuller form, while at other times it is found in a mutilated condition. And if one carefully examines the poem, one would discern that at times the author himself was responsible for employing such varying forms. The same sort of inconsistency is observable in the indication of the y-glide that appears in the place of the elided intervocalic consonants. In some places only a is found, while in others it is preceded by y. Thus as much lawlessness was found in the variants offered by the Mss., I had to adopt the above-described method of selecting the readings. I am aware that such a method is not absolutely scientific or satisfactory, but under the circumstances I could not find any less objectionable alternative.
From the information that I have, I think there can be found still many more Mss. of this work from the Jain
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