The bare text of Santideva's Bodhicaryavatara (BCA) was first brought to the notice of scholars by the Russian Scholar Minayef in an edition published in the Russian Oriental Journal Zapiski, IV, 1889. It was based on three independent Mss. which were available in Russia to the editor. Two more Mss. of the bare text were subsequently noticed in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Devanagari 78, and Burnouf 98. They were used by Louis de la Vallée Poussin, first in his edition in Roman script of the 9th chapter of the text as well as the text and commentary of Prajnakramati's Panjika in his work: Bouddhisme, Etudes et Materiaux Vol. I, Bruxelles, Academie, and Luzac, London, 1898; he also published the text and Panjika in Devanagari script of the first nine chapters, in the Bibliotheca Indica, Calcutta, 1902-14, (P in the margin), but the edition is still incomplete because the promised appendix containing missing portions of the text of Bodhicaryavatara and the Tibetan Translation of Panjika as well as other useful and usual indexes which are characteristics of this author's editions of Buddhist works, have not yet seen the light of the day, and we do not expect them any longer.
When, therefore, it was decided to include the Bodhi- caryavatara and Panjika in the present series, I thought I should put the missing portions of the text at least in their proper place, but leave out completing the missing portion of the Panjika either in its Tibetan translation or in its Sanskrit restoration. I have, however, added the usual indexes of verses, of quotations in verse and prose in the commentary traced to their sources as far as possible upto- date, and a list of Buddhist Sutras from which extracts are taken as are required to make the edition complete and more useful to the reader. It was also decided to publish earlier a new edition of Santideva's Siksasamuccaya and give references to this new edition in the present work, which is now published as BST. No. 11.