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Introduction
standings are removed from the readers' minds. The commentator gives the total number of the verses of Tg. as 172. In the Ms. the last verse is numbered 175. This means that either there was. some error in numbering or the text as given in this Ms. has three extra verses. The commentator has done his job neatly and efficiently. He meticulously explains various compound expressions (at times almost like a teacher to the novices) and clarifies both the meanings in the case of double-meaning expressions. The figures too are identified and explained briefly, and the general significance and purport of the verse is pointed out appropriately. His knowledge of Prakrit and Sanskrit is admirable. He is always to the point, providing thus a good instance of Mallinātha's dictum: nämülam likhyate kiñcin tiānapekṣitamucyate. Bappabhatti was a vidagdha Kavi. In several verses the idea is complex and the use of Sleşa makes it further complicated. Without the commentator's help these verses would have remained unclear or their purport ungrasped.
In a few places the reading available to the commentator differs from that which we find in the original text. (e. g. v. 39: gharaharim (Text), gharāgharim (Com.) ; in v. 14 Com. seems to read gulia wa for gulio vya of the Text. Once the Commentary has rendered two altenative readings : See the footnote on v. 127). Assuming a gap of some fifty years between the Text and the Commentary, we can assign the latter to the beginning of the tenth century at the earliest.
(e) The Listiog Device
As noted above, each group of verses in Tg. is prefaced with a Gāthā which gives a key-word of each verse in the group in the same order as that of the verses, and states that Gāthās containing these words were composed by Bappabhatti.
In the commentarial literature on the Jain Canonical texts we find the practice of using dvära-gathā or sangrahanigātnā. In the Niryuktis, some of which are datable in the sixth century, the
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