Dhurtakhyan

SR No.: 001861
Original Sutra Author: Haribhadrasuri
Author: Jinvijay
Publisher: Saraswati Pustak Bhandar Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 160
Language: Sanskrit, Prakrit, Gujarati
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Story, Literature, P000, & P030
File Size: 14 MB

Page 17

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DHURTAKHYANA:
reading a couple of such texts, my desire for reading many more such stories went on increasing, but they were not then available to me.
A couple of years after my initiation into the order, I happened to go to Ujjain with my teacher and other brother monks. In the Dharma-sthanaka there, among the Sastras collected by the ancestor monks of my teacher, I chanced to see certain Mss. of Balavabodha paraphrases on some Sütras and Kathanakas. It was for the first time in my life that I saw there the Mss. of the Bhuvanabhanucarita-Balavabodha and Dhartakhyāna-Bālāvabodha. At that stage I could not read their script, nor could I understand their language, with ease; still, after strenuous efforts and repeated reading, I could manage to grasp the contents of the Bhuvanabhanucarita-Balavabodha. I liked it immensely, and I mentioned it to my Teacher. He grew angry with me; he at once snatched away the Ms. from me, and quietly put it in the box as before. I came to know, later on, that my Teacher had heard that the Carita contained references to the worship of Jaina temples and of images of Jina: of course, my Teacher had never read it himself. His intention was that a raw mind like that of myself should not be influenced by such stories that did not conform to the accepted creed of the Sthanakaväsi Sampradaya. Fascinated by its very title, he, however, kept with himself and began reading the Dhürtäkhyāna-Balavabodha. He finished it in a couple of days, and also recommended it to me that it contained nice stories which are quite useful for sermons. He had read it for the first time; and under his advice I began to read it zealously and respectfully. I read it so often, and mastered its contents so thoroughly, as if it was a text book for some examination. The Ms. furnished no details about its author and date; nor did I possess any curiosity to know these things at that time: my mental horizon was not wide enough for such an enquiry. When we left that place after the Caturmäsa, the Ms. was put in its box; that must be, if I remember right, during the rainy season of 1905. That is how, quite indirectly and accidentally, I came to be acquainted, during my student-life, with the Dhürtäkhyäna of Haribhadra.
Later on, after some 8 or 10 years, as a monk of the Svetämbara Mürti püjaka Sampradaya, I had the good fortune of inspecting the Jaina Bhandara at Patan. In the meantime I studied Sanskrit and Prakrit; and my zest for perviewing the rich and varied range of Jaina literature was increasing. The Mss, on which the present edition of the Dhürtäkhyāna is based were first seen by me at this time. After studying more about the work and its authors, I desired that this work should be printed and published. When this desire occurred to me, I never dreamt, being quite aware of my ability then, that some day in the future I would have the opportunity of editing it. After some more years of study my mastery of Prakrit increased; and at the suggestion of my scholar-friend, the late lamented C. D. Dalal, the original organiser of the Gaikwad Oriental Series, I began to edit the Kumarapala-pratibodha of Somaprabhācārya for that Series from a single palm-leaf Ms. found in the Pätan