Thus the eighth item of the promise also (as well as the second) was fulfilled by the Index.—Desirable as such critical notes may be in connection with the Index, a report of the variants of the European mss. of the Vulgate recension in the sequence of the text was none the less called for. The report is accordingly given in this work, and includes not only the mss. of Berlin, Paris, Oxford, and London, collated before publishing, but also those of Munich and Tübingen, collated twenty years after (see below, p. xliv, note 5, p. lxiv).
Scope of this work as transcending previous promise.—The accessory material of this work, beyond what was promised by the preface of the text-edition, is mentioned in the third paragraph of Whitney's "Announcement," p. xviii, and includes the reports of the readings of the Kashmirian recension and of S. P. Pandit's authorities, extracts from the native commentary, and a translation. For the first. Roth had performed the long and laborious and difficult task of making a careful collation of the Pāippalāda text, and had sent it to Whitney. In his edition published in Bombay, S. P. Pandit had given for the Vulgate recension the variants of the authorities (Indian: not also European) accessible to him, and including not only the variants of manuscripts, but also those of living reciters of the text. The advance sheets of his edition he had sent in instalments to Whitney, so that all those portions for which Pandit published the comment were in Whitney's hands in time to be utilized by him, although the printed date of Pandit's publication (1895–8) is subsequent to Whitney's death.
Evolution of the style of the work.—To elaborate all the varied material described in the foregoing paragraphs into a running commentary on the nineteen books was accordingly Whitney's task, and he was "fairly started" upon it in 1885–6. As was natural, his method of treatment became somewhat fuller as he proceeded with his work. There is in my hands his prior draft of the first four or five books, which is relatively meagre in sundry details. It was not until he had advanced well into the second grand division (books viii.–xii.) that he settled down into the style of treatment to which he then adhered to the end.
Partial rewriting and revision by Whitney.—Thereupon, in order to carry out the early books in the same style as the later ones, it became necessary to rewrite or to revise the early ones. He accordingly did rewrite the first four (cf. p. xcviii below), and to the next three (v., vi., vii.) he gave a pretty thorough revision without rewriting; and at this point, apparently, he was interrupted by the illness which proved fatal. The discussion of the ritual uses in book viii. (supplied by me) would doubtless have been his next task. Not counting a lot of matter for his General Introduction, Whitney's manuscript of his commentary and translation,
