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In editing the Petakopadesa I have made use of the following MSS:- B1. ) B2. ) B3. ) - Palm-leaf MSS in Burmese characters. S. - Paper MS in Sinhalese characters. Unsatisfactory as the MSS are from the point of view of an editor because of the abundance of corrupt readings, B3, however is comparatively more reliable than the others. B2. very closely follows B3, discrepancies being due to the scribe. Bl. and S. on the other hand differ materially from B2. and B3, both in arrangement and in the readings. I have taken the reading that is common to a larger number of the MSS, with a partiality however, for B3. The Petakopadesa is reputed to be the work of MahakaccSyana, the famous disciple of the Buddha. Every chapter of the Petaka end with affirming the authorship of MahakaccSyana. Gandha-Vamsa supports this and tradition in Burma confirms this view. This, however, cannot be accepted as true. Prof. Hardy is of opinion that the author's name was probably Kaooayana which was subsequently changed Into Mahakaooayana. The exact date of the Petaka is as yet undetermined. All that can be said at present is that the work was written sometime between the 5th century A.D. and the date of the later all Pali Canonical works. The Petakopadesa is divided into eight chapters or bhumis. These are the following (1) AriyasacoapakasanS-pathamabhllmi (2) Sasanapatth Snadutiyabhumi. (3) Sattadhitthana -tatlyabhumi. (4) Suttavieaya-oatutthabhuml. (5) HaraTlbhanga-pancamabhllml. (6) Suttatthasamuccayabhumi (7) Harasampatabhumi. (8) Suttarebhangiya. Of these eight bhumis Nos. (2) (5) and (7) hare got their corresponding counterpart in the Netti which is also the work of the same author. The same line of thought, the same outlook of the author can be observed in both the Netti and the Petaka.
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