Mahavira and his Teaching

SR No.: 008019
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti
Publication Year: 1977
Total Pages: 509
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Biography, Religion, & Principle
File Size: 12 MB

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LUDWIK STERNBACH
(Contd.) This is a poem in various texts of a different number of verses, usually, in äryä metre; the poem is written in simple language and contains questions and answers on ethics in general; these verses do no promote specifically Jaina morality but general ethics and therefore the poem was claimed by the Jainas, Buddhists and Brahmans. Probably in the tenth century A.D., it was included in the Tibetan Tanjur as Dri-ma med-pahi dris-lan rin-po-chehi phren-ba shes-bya-ba by Don-yod hchar and translated by Kamalagupta, Rin-chen bzan-po; it begins there with the invocation to Manjusri. There exists also a Jaina version of this work with an invocation to Mahāvīra and a Brahmanic version with an invocation to Gaņeśa. The Jaina version is ascribed to Vimala, a Śyetambara, but probably this work was originally not a Jaina work. It was very often published, particularly in the version attributed to Sankara (c.g. in Lucknow in 1875, in Lahore in 1880; in Lucknow in 1881, in Bankipore in 1884; in Benares in 1887, in Madras in 1909, in Bezwada in 1910, in Moradabad in 1911, in Coconada in 1913, in Moradabad in 1914 in Allahabad in 1923, in Madras in 1927, in Tanjore in 1927, in Allahabad in 1928, in Gorakhpur in 1928 and in many others, as well as in collected works (Minor works ankarācārya-different collections) as well as in KM. VII; pp. 121-3, attributed to Amoghavarsa BȚhat-stotra-muktahāra I and II, Bombay 1914, 1916 and 1923, Bțhatstotra-ratnakara I, Bombay 1888; Grantharatnamåla I, Bombay 1887, A Jaina recension was published in Calcutta in 1905 and by P.-E. PAVOLINI in GSAI i1; 153-63; this is a Prākrit recension. The Tibetan version was edited and translated by A. SCHIEFNER in Academiae Janensis Saecularia Tertia deibus XV, XVI, XVII Aug. Anni. MDCCCLVIII celebranda gratulatur Academiae Caesarea Scientiarium Petropolitana and by SUNITI KUMAR PATHAK in the Journal of the Greater India Society 17.92 and by P. E. FOUCAUX (La guirlande précieuse des demandes et des réponses publiéss en Sanskrit et tibetain, in Extrait des mémoires de l'Académic de Stanislas, Paris 1967. Cf. A. WEBER, “Ueber die Praśnottararatnamāla, Juwelenkranz der Fragen u. Antwort Monatsberichte der kon. Akademie der Wiss. zu Berlin 1868; 92-117 and in Indische Streifen L 210-27, J. Christian in JASB 16 (1882); 1228; and L. STERNBACH, The Spreading of Canakya's Aphorisms over “Greater Indra", Calcutta 1969, paras 5 and 22.