Navsuttani

SR No.: 003556
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Tulsi Acharya, Mahapragna Acharya
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 1316
Language: Prakrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Agam, & Canon
File Size: 29 MB

Page 77

Editorial
The present volume is the fifth in the series of volumes related to the Agama literature published by the Jain Vishva Bharati. It comprises nine texts, viz. Avassayam, Dasaveäliyam, Uttarajjhayaṇāņi, Nandi, Anuogaddardim, Dasão, Kappo, Vavahdro and Nishajjhayaṇam.
It has been styled Navasuttani, as it consists of nine suttas. It gives variant readings from different manuscripts, and a short introduction. An elaborate introduction and word index are not appended, as we propose to affix them to independent parts of the volume.
It is well known to all working in this field that editing is the most difficult job, specially when the texts to be edited are separated by a gap of several millennia in respect of language, style and thought. It is unexceptionally true that a thought or a custom does not continue in its original shape through the ages. It invariably expands or contracts. The story of expansion and contraction is the story of change. "What is made up' is necessarily amenable to change. The insistence on the eternality of events, facts, thoughts and customs that are subject to change leads one to untruth and false imagination. The truth is what is made up' is necessarily transient. Whether 'made up' or 'eternal', it must needs be susceptible of change. Whatever there is must be of a nature that is not absolutely divorced from the stream of eternity and change.
Is it possible that an idea or truth expressed by a particular word is capable of being expressed with its original connotation at all times? The semantic change is a necessary phenomenon and so no one with a knowledge of linguistics will insist that a word continues to have the same connotation through a period of two thousand years. For example, the expression päşanda has not the same meaning in modern framanic literature as it had in the times of the Agamas and Ashoka's inscriptions. It has acquired a derogatory nuance. Hundreds of words in the ancient Agama literature have shared the same fate. Under the circumstances, any thoughtful person will appreciate the difficulties in the task of an editor of ancient literature.
Self-confidence is an innate virtue of human beings who take great pride in the exercise of their courage, and do not shirk from responsibility however ardous.