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Note to the Digital Edition
Dr. Cone’s text has been reproduced from the Journal of the Pali Text Society, Volume XIII (1989), pp. 101-217. I have reproduced Cone’s text as printed as close as possible, except for certain small changes which are listed here:
- The use of the avagraha (elipsis sign) in the original has been replaced with the normal elipsis marker ’ the ITM_TMS font doesn’t contain the avagraha sign so I can't give an example.
- The vowel r sign in Sanskrit is written with a ring underneath not with a dot e.g. dṣṭā (not dṛṣṭā).
- Line breaks in the original manuscript, which were noted in the text by the first akṣara being written in bold type, have been omitted.
- Uncertain readings are marked with red coloured text, as well as being placed in brackets, e.g. ma[nopūrvvaṁ]gamā.
- Some readings, which are not visible in the photographs that Cone was working from, have been supplied either from Roth’s reconstruction in his edition, or by myself. They are placed in square brackets and marked with green coloured text, e.g. bhojanamhi ca mā[ttraṁñū sa]ddhaṁ.
- Alternative readings which were placed in brackets in the original are now reported in the footnotes.
I am very grateful to Prof. K.R. Norman who sent a few small corrections to be made to the printed text. These include the accidental omission of a half-verse (145cd); and the repetition of a quarter-verse (149b).
* * *
In the presentation of the Pāḷi verses I have simplified the punctuation to bring it more into line with the way Patna is written. I have also occasionally corrected my original edition, based on considerations arising from preparing this comparative edition, and the new readings are included in this edition, and in the revised edition of The Dhammapada - A New Edition elsewhere on this website.
When I was unable to find a parallel in the Pāḷi texts I have tried to include one from the Udānavarga, but even so (as in the Pāḷi Dhammapada) a number of verses do not seem to have parallels existing outside of the tradition in which they were being passed down (cf. 118, 119, 120, 214, 285, 330, 367, 371).
There are two studies at the beginning of the work. The first compares the collection, organisation and arrangement of the Patna Dharmapada with the Pāḷi Dhammapada. The second gives a description of the metres that are employed in Patna.
At the end there are 3 indexes to make reference easier for those who wish to study the text. They include a complete word index, a first line index, and an index to the metres.
Abbreviations
Dhp = The Dhammapada - A New Edition, Ānandajoti Bhikkhu, version 2.2, August 2007.
Iti = Itivuttakapāḷi, BJT edition.
Ud = Udānapāḷi, BJT edition.
Sn V = Pārāyanavagga - A New Edition, Ānandajoti Bhikkhu, 2003.
All other Pāḷi texts are quoted from the Sinhala-letter Buddha Jayantī Tripiṭaka Granthamālā (BJT) editions as reprinted in Colombo in 2005/6.
Ud-v = Udānavarga, edited by Franz Bernhard.
last updated: October 2007
