________________
SAU
YANY
Necesorny or
sain Kesearch
HAS
(W. Schubring )
When, niore than thirty years ago, I began to study the religious texts of the Svetambara Jains, it was Professor Hoernle's edition of the Uvasagadasao ( Calcutta 1888-90 ) where I first met with the name of Mugi Atmaramji. To him, as to one of the spiritual leaders of the Community, the editor tends his special thanks for many informations the learned Muni most liberally had given him. So it can be said that the mentioned edition and translation owe their definitive features to a collaboration of Indian and Western spirit. I am inclined to take this fact as a lucky omen for a still outstanding work about which I say some words, at the occasion of the Atmaramji Centenary.
While the doctrines of old Buddhisiu, laid down in the Tripitaka, can easily be studied by scholars outside of India in the many volumes published by the Pali Text Society, this, from various reasons, is, not the case with the teaching of Mahavira. The holy scriptures of his adherents have not found their " Jaina Text Society ” which Professor Piscbel in 1933 meant to see in a near future. On the contrary, scholarly work in the Agama, instead of being carried out according to a deliberate plan, has remained accidental. That nevertheless those meritorious monographs which we owe to Professors von Glasen app, Gue'rinol, Kirfel and others could paint a lively picture of Jainism on the ground of later documents, while in the whole dispensing from the old sources, is due to a peculiar reason. Much
Shatabdi Granth ]
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