PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
I.
This is, so far as I know, the first attempt to publish a critical edition of Sadananda's work in conjunction with its two Commentaries. Dr. Ballantyne brought out an edition of the text; accompanied by an excellent English translation in 1850; but that has long been out of print. A greatly improved text, with German translation, formed part of Dr. Boehtlingk's Chrestomathie published in 1877. But the only edition of Nrisimhasarasvati's commentary that I have seen is that appended to Pandit Jivananda's edition of the text, dated 1875. Ramatirtha's commentary was printed in Calcutta in 1828, and in Benares (in The Pandit) in 1873. In the latter instance it formed a mere appendage to the English translation, was put together with very little regard to typography, and looks as if it had been prepared from a single manuscript of pronounced inaccuracy !
The present edition is the outcome of a careful collation of fifteen manuscripts, a process which brought to light numerous misreadings which had been adopted more or less fully by previous editors. These have been removed; but, possibly, whilst thus avoiding Scylla I may have fallen into Charybdis! Of this, scholars must be the judge. A special feature of this volume is that here, for the first time, the quotations are plainly marked and their sources indicated. The fact that the three works contain in the aggregate 579 citations from other authors, and that all but 25 of them have been traced and verified, will show the importance of this addition. But only quotation-hunters will rightly appreciate the immense labour and research which it implies! I would here acknowledge my indebtedness to Prof Buhler
