Swayambhuchand

SR No.: 023463
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: H D Velankar
Publisher: Rajasthan Prachyavidya Pratishtan
Publication Year: 1962
Total Pages: 292
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 22 MB

Page 14

INTRODUCTION
1. In 1935 I had published the then available portion of the Svayambhuchandas from a paper ms. from the Oriental Institute of Baroda, in the Journal of the Bombay Asiatic Society. I am now re-editing the same along with portions of the earlier part of the work which were supplied by a palm-leaf ms., so kindly given me by Pandit Rahula Sankrtyayana, who secured it from one of the monasteries in Tibet. I got this second ms. at almost the last stage of printing the text and so I had to print it at the end, on pp. 103-127. I have, however, compared this new ms. with the old one and on page 127 I have recorded the variant readings from it in the portions of Sb. chs. 1-4 and 8 which alone are available in it. In giving the Notes, however, I have begun with the earlier portion of the work which was missing in the Baroda ms. Even though this new ms. is only a fragment, it is yet possible to get a proper outline of the nature and extent of the work as a whole with its help. This ms. also contains the concluding part of the work, which is not found in the Baroda ms. and I have incorporated it in the printed text as I got it in time for the press.
2. After the first publication of the Svayambhuchandas, Pandit Nathuram Premi, a reputed Jain scholar, published his work on the History of Jainism and its literature in Hindi, in 1942. This book of his contains learned articles on several Jain authors who wrote in Sanskrit, Prakrit or Apabhramśa languages. Among these there is one on Mahakavi Svayambhu (pp. 370-387). Here Premi has proved that the author of the Svayambhuchandas had also composed two other works both in Apabhramsa, one called Paumacariu on the story of the Jain Rāmāyana and the other called Riṭṭhanemicariu on that of the Jain Harivamśa. The latter is more generally known as Harivamsa Purana. There is also a third work called Pañcamicariu which too is ascribed to Svayambhu by his son Tribhuvana; but its mss. are not yet available. Of these three works of Svayambhu, one, namely, Paumacariu, is now carefully and critically edited by Dr. H. C. Bhayani, my colleague at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, and published in the Singhi Jain Granthamala, Bombay, 1953. In the Introduction to this edition Dr. Bhayani has very thoroughly examined the question of the date and authorship of Svayambhu on the basis of all the available material at that time. I am particularly happy to say that his brilliant guess1 about the contents of the earlier part of the Svayambhu
1. Compare P. C. Introduction, pp. 20-27, p. 27 in particular.