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INTRODUCTION.
xix
chapters Vishnu has mainly prose Satras and throughout a perfectly correct text, whereas Vasishtha has bad Slokas which, supported as they are by the Commentary or by the metre or by both, can only be accounted for by carelessness or clerical mistakes in some cases, and by a clumsy versification of the original prose version preserved in this work in others. Another chapter of the Vishnu-sútra, the fortyeighth, nowhere meets with a parallel except in the third Prasna of the Dharma-sūtra of Baudhầyana, where it recurs almost word for word. An examination of the various readings in both works shows that in some of the Slokas Baudhayana has better readings, while in one or two others the readings of Vishnu seem preferable, though the unsatisfactory condition of the MS. consulted renders it unsafe to pronounce a definitive judgment on the character of Baudhayana's readings. At all events he has a few Vedic Mantras more than Vishnu, which however seem to be very well-known Mantras and are quoted by their Pratîkas only. But he omits the two important Sûtras 9 and 10 of Vishnu, the latter of which contains a Mantra quoted at full, which, although corrupted (see Vagas. Samh. IV, 12) and hardly intelligible, is truly Vedic in point of language; and he adds on his part a clause at the end of the whole chapter, which inculcates the worship of Ganesa or Siva or both, and would be quite sufficient in itself to cast a doubt on the genuineness and originality of his version. It is far from improbable that both Vâsishtha and Baudhayana may have borrowed
emfa * Falfa (= sima Vishnu LVI, 27) gafant wat
जातिस्मरत्वं लभते यदीच्छेत् ॥१५॥ Vishnu LVI,15,16, the best MSS.readyFat Amhaft 1941 of 1961 but the Calc. ed. and one London MS. have yerah I TETTI like Vd. sishtha. Of Vishxu LXXXVII the latter has an abridged version, which contains the faulty readings TumATTTT (* the skin of a black antelope,' Comm.) and sugarait (as an epithet of the earth = agtritt Vishnu LXXXVII, 9).
'गणान्पश्यति गणाधिपतिं पश्यति विद्यां पश्यति विद्याधिपतिं पश्यति । इत्याह भगवान्बौधायनः।
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