While a critical edition of the vyavahāra section of Gaṅgāditya's Smṛticintāmaṇi was being prepared, the following quotation of Bṛhaspati was found in the manuscripts:

A comparison of the variant readings given in both K.V. Rangaswami Aiyangar's edition of the BS (75) and the first volume of the Dharmakośa (414) shows that the Smṛticintāmaṇi is the only nibandha having the readings underlined above. The second half of the śloka generally runs as follows:

Thus, the question arose whether it was possible to preserve the reading found in the manuscripts of the Smṛticintāmaṇi or not. Since the general principle which we have adopted for selecting readings provides that variant readings in the manuscripts should be preserved if they afford good sense, even if they differ from the readings found in all other sources, the problem was reduced to an enquiry into the sense of the reading of the manuscripts and at the same time, by way of comparison, into the meaning of the reading found in the other dharmanibandhas. In view of this principle, the reading of the manuscripts had to be rejected in favor of the generally accepted version; the meaning of the latter, however, presents some difficulties, and it is the purpose of this paper to seek to explain them.