Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica

SR No.: 011088
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society
Total Pages: 248
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

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PROLEGOMENA TO PRAKRITICA et JAINICA
research would have enjcyed the great luck of having them at its disposal, if Klatt's Onomasticon had been completed and printed. Eight volumes from his own hand in alphabetical order contain what was within his reach to collect data concerning Jain authors and works. But he fell severely ill and never recovered. The work was estimated to fill some 1,100 pages in print, but no more than 55 pages have been printed as a specimen thanks to Weber and Leumann 20. The first to become a bibliographer of Jainism was Guérinot by his "Essai de bibliographie jaina" (1906). A modern standard was not reached until 1944, when Velankar's Jinaratnakoşa appeared, where the Jain works have been catalogued, while a second volume containing their authors is still waiting for being published. A primitive forerunner had been the “Jaina Granthāvali” published by the Jain Svetāmbara Conference in 1908.
Another fundament for Jain history are the inscriptions. Guérinot’s “Essai" was followed in 1908 by a “Répertoire d'épigraphie jaina." Though not the work of a specialist, yet Luders' "List of Brāhmi Inscriptions from the earliest time till about 400 A.D. with the exception of those of Asoka" is valuable thanks to innumerable inscribed allusions to the Order of Jain laymen and monks. (EI 10, App. L.C. 1912.)
It seems to be a digression from our subject when we note that Bühler in his academical lecture “Über die indische Sekte der Jainas" (1887) was the first to call up the interest of non-scholars for Jainism, legitimated as he was to do so thanks to 17 years of official service in the then Bombay Presidency. Mrs. S. Stevenson, trained in the Christian Mission of Gujarat, wrote her book "The
30. Specimen of a literary-biographical Onomasticon by Dr.
Joh. Klatt Leipzig 1892.--His obituary by Leumann IA, p. 23, 169.