वाराहश्रोतसूत्रम: Varaha Srauta Sutra Being The Main Ritualistic Sutra of the Maitrayani Sakha

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Preface I have great satisfaction in placing before the Sanskritist the second volume of this series. It was in 1927 that I was first introduced to this work in its relation to the Grhya.* The richness of its contents was fascinating and I immediately undertook the restoration of the text. Two years later Professor Caland joined me and long and laboriously we worked together for a year. Every page had its intricacies and problems. Whole sutras had been distorted out of shape and single words, word-groups and phrases were often unrecognizable. Most patiently we struggled to stretch our eyes behind these corruptions to reach the true words. We succeeded in the main, though here and there we had to keep in our text doubtful or even entirely undeciphered readings. On the whole we claim no more than to present herewith a tentative text, which could certainly be improved by the discovery of fresh manuscripts.

The manuscript, upon which our edition is based, was very kindly lent to us by Dr. B. Bhattacharya of the Oriental Institute, Baroda. It is designated as "press-copy" on the cover-board. It was prepared some years ago at the instance of Dr. R. Sama Sastry. It is nothing more than a mere copy of a Devanagari Mrs., with variants (many of which are derived from the Apastamba-Srautasutra) noted above the lines from a second ms.* Both of these mss. are deposited in the Oriental Institute, Baroda. We, however, could not examine them, because the authorities did not permit their removal from the Institute Library. After closing the Srauta proper the Mrs. goes on with the Parasites whose names are enumerated in the beginning of the Varaha-Grhyasutra. In the near future I hope to be able to bring out the Parastas, l. though I shall not have the pleasure of the cooperation of the great Dutch savant Prof. Caland.

Here I must offer a word of explanation as to why the usual introduction has been replaced by a short preface. The introduction had grown too long. Our text is new and unique, offering numerous points of interest in its details. These could not be elucidated by a miserly treatment. I might have appended here a summary of the results attained, but that would have rendered the main thesis insipid. So that now the introduction would appear as a separate volume, which would also contain an English commentary on the Sutras.

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