Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela and Bhabru Edict of Asoka

SR No.: 006726
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Shashi Kant
Publisher: D K Print World
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 196
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 146

120
The Hathigumpha Inscription and the Bhabru Edict यहाँ बहुत प्राचीन काल से चली आ रही है इससे इसमें हमें कोई आश्चर्य पाने की बात नहीं ।
[This Theravali was received by me through the good offices of Pandit-pravar Sri Sukhlal ji in Ahmedabad and I went through it very thoroughly. On reading it I found the entire book to be a work of fiction and also came to know of something as to who invented it and when. I do not deem it necessary now to specially mention that. Only this much would be proper to say that the fictionist of the Himavanta-Theravali invented the narrative of the Theravali on reading the Khāravela's inscription in my book Präcina Jaina Lekha Samgraha, part I, wherein is given the text of the inscription as read by Pt. Bhagwanlal Indraji. The Theravali of that fictionist could not be made up-to-date as he could not divine the reading of Sri Jayaswal ji. Anyway. There is nothing to wonder in it because this practice is continuing with us from very old times.]
Pt. Sukhlal was an eminent Śvetämbara scholar. Muni Jina Vijaya was himself a Svetämbara Muni but he was also an unbiased scholar and an eminent archaeologist who would not be influenced by sectarian prejudice and be a party to distorting the source material. He had himself worked on the Hathīgumphā Inscription with K.P. Jayaswal.
On Muni Jina Vijaya's finding that the HimavantaTheravali was not an authentic work, the scholars (Jayaswal, Banerji, Barua and Sircar) who had worked so hard on this inscription, did not take any notice of it. Muni Kalyana Vijaya and Muni Punya Vijaya had tried to project it as a valuable source, but they did not pursue the matter after the categorical finding given by Muni Jina Vijaya.
After some 45 years Acharya Śrī Hastimala ji Maharaja revived this Theravali as an important source in his Jainadharma kā Maulika Itihasa. It is now creating confusion and misleading the scholars who are not aware of Muni Jina Vijaya's finding.