Indian Antiquary Vol 47

SR No.: 032539
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 386
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 149

MAY, 1918)
BOOK NOTICES
139
BOOK NOTICES.
DAVVA-SANGANA (DRAVYA SANGRAHA) by NEMI-
CHANDRA SIDDHANTA-CHAKRAVARTÍ, with a commentary by BRAHMA-LEVA, edited with introduction, translation, notes and an original commentary in English by SARAT CHANDRA GHOSHAL, M.A., B.L., Saraswati, etc., and published by Kumar Devendra Prasad, the Central Jaina Publishing House, Arrah (India.) 1917. pp. Ixxxiii and 103.
This is an excellent edition of a philosophical work of the Digambara sect of the Jainas. It is not often that we lay our hands on a book published in India which is so neatly got up and generally so carefully edited. The editor and the publisher have done almost everything that could be calculated to make the perusal of this rather abstruse work attractive and easy to readers not acquainted with the technicalities of Jaina metaphysics. Besides the introduction in which he discusses the date of the work, and gives an account of the other books written by its author, the editor, Mr. Ghoshal, has provided an appendix giving notes on various important points, four indexes for convenience of reference, and also eight charts illustrating the analysis of the Jaina categories. For the help of Western scholars who do not find it convenient to read the Devanagari script, all the Prakrit Gåthåg or verses, their Sanskrit renderings, and also the verbal analysis or Padapathu have all been given both in Nagart as well as Roman alphabets. The Sanskrit commentary by Brahmadeva has been given in original. In the English commentary which evinces much learning and research, the editor has generally followed the interpretation given by Brahmadeva and has enriched it with copious extracts from other Jaina works bearing on the subjeots discussed. The translation is generally a good piece of work, though we might differ from the editor in the rendering of an expression here and there.
Dávva-Sangaha is a short work of 58 verses in Jaina Prakrit in which the author enumerates, claseifies and defines the six Dravyas or substances (spirit, matter, space, time, dharma and adharma ), into which all concepts in the universe are divided and also the seven Tattvas or fundamental categories (&srava, bandha, sameara, nirjard and moksha); and
finally, he indicates the path to the liberation of the soul through perfect faith, perfect knowledge and porfect conduct.
The author, Nomichandra Siddhanta-Chakravarti flourished at the end of the tenth century A.D. and was the preceptor of the celebrated Châmunda Raya who erected at Sravana Belgoļa, in Mysore, the colossal monolithic statue (673 feet high) of Gommateśvara of which Fergusson writes, nothing grander or more imposing exists out of Egypt."
Two imperfections of this otherwise scholarly work, we venture to point out. Mr. Ghoshal has not indicated any varia lectionæ nor stated what text of this important work he has adopted. There have already been three other printed editions of this work and some manuscripts have been noticed by scholars. Certainly he could have examined some of them and collated the different readings wherever there might be any. Another desideratum is the absence of any remarks on the language in which it is written. We may hope that should a second edition of this work be called for, these apparent defects will be removed.
We should not omit to thank the enterprising publisher, Kumar Devendra Prasad, the founder of the Central Jaina Publishing House, Arrah, for making this valuable work available in this useful form; let us hope that in the near futuro he will be able to fulfil his promise of presenting us with similar scholarly editions of the other works of his series of “The Sacred Books of the Jainas."
H. C. CHAKLADAR.
THE PRACTICAL PATH by CHAMPAT RAI JAIN,
Bar-at-Law. The Central Jaina Pablishing House, Arrah, 1917; pp. xxxi, 233.
This is another work printed by the same enterprising publishing house at Arrah. The author, himself an ardent Jaina of the Digambara school, has in this book the object, an ho puts it, of " pointing out the practical scientific method of self-realisation " according to Jaina philosophy. With this end, in view he has enumerated, and furnished an interpretation of, the Tatras or categories of fundamental truths of the universe, an accurate knowledge of which is sesential for the realisation of nirvana. The Jainas possess an