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________________ JINESVARSURI'S GAHARAYANAKOSA* Ancient Indian poets, as a class, were extremely reticent about their personal history, education, environment, the influences that shaped them, their family life, their successes and failures. Poets like Bhasa, Kalidasa hardly speak of anything about themselves. This suicidal indifference on the part of ancient Sanskrit and Prakrit poets and authors was most probably due to their strong belief that what really mattered was their poetic creation and not their own personality. The thought, idea or feeling embodied in a poem alone was important and not the poet who wrote it or the time when he composed it. Alamkarikas too held identical views as is clear from their works wherein they dealt with the poetic products as created and finished facts never bothering themselves about their authors. It is this colossal indifference which is responsible for not preserving the authentic names of poets or their works in the anthologies of Hala (Sattasai or Saptasatakam or Gathasaptasati), Jayavallabha (Vajjalaggam), Chappannaya (Chappannayagahao) or Jinesvarasuri (Gaharayanakosa). We should, however, be grateful to these anthologists for preserving at least some of the finest and highly poetic and subhasita-like verses of many unknown poets who are totally forgotten by posterity. All these Prakrit Kosas are compilations of stanzas of other poets barring, of course, a few stanzas of the anthologists themselves, The L. D. Institute of Indology (Ahmedabad) has recently brought out an unpublished Gaharayanakosa. This is compiled by Jinesvarasuri towards the close of the 12th Century A. D. In a short Preface Pt. Dalsukh Malvania, the Director of the Institute, points out the importance of the present volume which presents three gathasangrahas, published for the first time and thanks the joint Editors Pt. Amritlal M. Bhojak and Dr. Nagin J. Shah who have taken great pains to make the edition useful and have tried to present the text as flawlessly as possible. * Jinesvarsuri's Gaharayanakosa : edited by Pt. Amritlal M. Bhojak and Dr. Nagin J. Shah, Published by Pt. Dalsukh Malvania, Director, L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad 9, 1975. Price Rs. 12/ Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org
| SR No. | 001868 |
| Book Title | Studies in Jain Literature |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | V M Kulkarni |
| Publisher | Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre |
| Publication Year | 2001 |
| Total Pages | 114 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English, Literature, & Story |
| File Size | 14 MB |