The undertaking of a new task in India is often held to require a number of rituals, rules, or customs. The field of scholarly activities is no exception in this respect. Alphabetlearning (vidyārambha or akṣarasvīkāra), to start with, is expected to take place on certain auspicious days, following the scriptures' prescriptions. This is also the case with the inception of Vedic recitation, the age of the upanayana ceremony depending on one's caste. Similarly, Sanskrit classical works are often preceded by an auspicious verse (maṃgalaśloka) paying homage, among other things, to a deity and/or to the author's teacher. Such a maṭgalaśloka is believed to ensure that the composition of the work will be completed without hindrance. Since the ritualization of all important events is deeply rooted in the cultural background, it is not surprising that Indian scribes should, in their turn, insert an auspicious note in their manuscripts before the Sanskrit text they are about to copy. The preliminary invocations of the scribes in the manuscripts of the Kāśikāvṛtti available to us will be dealt with in the first part of this paper. The second part is concerned with the historical transmission of the Kāśikāvṛtti's incipit (its maṭgalaśloka), taking into account new elements of information resulting from the study of the manuscripts used for our edition.

Unlike the maṭgalaśloka, the copyist's invocation is not a part of the transmitted text.