Progress of Prakrit and Jaina Studies

SR No.: 011087
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhogilal J Sandesara
Publisher: Jain Cultural Research Society
Total Pages: 55
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

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ern science of Mathematics, and more of such studies should be undertaken.
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In post-Canonical Prakrit literature we find good work in quality as well as in quantity. The Prakrit Text Society has almost completed the printing of the Paumacariya of Vimalasūri, embodying a Jaina version of the Rāmāyaṇa, with a Hindi translation by Mr. Shantilal Shah. The text is a reprint of the Bhavnagar edition by Dr. Jacobi published in 1914, which is long out of print, but it has been carefully collated with two more manuscripts.
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Under the auspices of the same society Pt. Amritlal Bhojak has prepared a critical edition of the Cauppannamahāpurisacariya of Sīlāñka on the basis of the earliest palm-leaf manuscripts. The text and appendices are completely printed and the book might have been out by the time this address is being delivered. It is a voluminous work giving universal history according to Jainism, and its Granthāgra is about 11000 slokas. Contrary to the current belief, the author is different from his famous name-sake who wrote. Sanskrit commentaries on the Acārānga and Sūtrakṛtānga. No date of composition has been given in this work, but according to the Bṛhaṭṭipanikā, a mediaeval catalogue of Jaina works, it was composed in V. S. 925 (869 A. D.). Occasionally its Prakrit narrative is interspersed with Apabharamsa. Dr. A. N. Jani has prepared an English translation of some relevant. portions of Dr. Klaus Brühn's German thesis on this Prakrit work (Hamburg, 1954) and it is being printed in this edition. The publication of this text will make available to scholars one of the most important sources utilized by the great savant Hemacandra while composing his voluminous Sanskrit work, Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacarita, an encyclopaedia of Jaina mythology.
These are, in a way, works of Puriņa-type in Prakrit. But Dharmakatha too had a very important place in Prakrit literature. One of the most remarkable Dharmakathās in