A verse in the editio princeps of the SDS, Ch. 1 runs as follows:

If the śrāddha produces gratification to beings who are dead. Then here too, in the case of travellers when they start, it is needless to give provisions for the journey.

Iśwarachandra Vidyāsāgara, the first editor of the SDS, could procure only five MSS for collation. Apparently all the five contained the same reading. Two large Sanskrit dictionaries, the Śabdakalpadruma and the Vācaspatyam, quote this reading along with other verses from the SDS. Subsequent editions (reprints) of the SDS published by Tārānātha Tarkavācaspati (1871), Jīvānanda Vidyāsāgara (1889) and Maheśacandra Pāl (1894) adopted the same reading.

Hari Nārāyaṇa Āpṭe brought out a new edition of the SDS in 1906. It supplied the last chapter not found in the MSS available to Iśwarachandra Vidyāsāgara. However, as regards the verse under discussion (v. 4 of the last section), Āpṭe's edition does not differ in any respect from the editio princeps.

It is in Vāsudeva Shāstrī Abhyaṅkar's edition of the SDS (1924) that two additional lines are first found. The second line of the earlier reading (4 cd) becomes the first line of the next verse (5 ab) and two new lines, 4 cd and 5 cd are added.