Vadundhara dharani a Buddhist work in use among Jainas of Gujarat

SR No.: 250362
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Padmanabh S Jaini
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_
Total Pages: 18
Language: English
Classification: Article & Mantra Tantra
File Size: 1 MB

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36 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
broken by the misplacement of certain paragraphs as indicated below in the text. This must be the result of following a faulty MS. tradition. It is apparent therefore that all three MSS. have either been copied from a single original MS. yet to be found, or one of them has served as the original for the remaining two.
Of the three again, B and C have many common readings which sometimes appear to be improvements made on the readings in A. B and C have also a long passage at the end of the text of the stotra explaining the various blessings obtained by its recitation, a feature totally absent from A. For these reasons we are inclined to believe that A is older than the other two. A is also the only dated MS. and we have chosen it for the basic text. Variant readings in B and C, even when they appear to be better than A, are given in the footnotes. Only a few scribal errors in A have been emended with the help of B and C and are noted in the footnotes as occurring in A. No attempt has otherwise been made to correct the MS. in keeping with the normal practice of editing works in Buddhist Sanskrit.
The colophon of A states that the work was written for the benefit of Sah sri Indraji Sundara, son of Pamaniya, in the year Samvat 1695, i. e., A. D. 1638. The work has thus been known to the Jainas of Gujarat for at least three centuries, and it should be possible to find many more MSS. of this work in Gujarat. Great importance attaches to the date of this MS., since the Nepalese MSS. of this work in Professor Brough's collection and in the University Library, Cambridge are based on a different set of MSS. far larger in size than our A, and contain large portions of additional material mainly in the form of mantras and details regarding the actual rites. Only one of these, viz., No. 1355 of the Cambridge University Library is dated as Nepali Samvat 696 (A. D. 1576). If this be the true date of this MS., it is apparent that the MSS. A, B and C have preserved an earlier redaction, which would render them of great value for a history of the Vasudhārā cult in general and for a critical edition of the Vasudhāra-dhārani in particular.
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The name of this patron is not found in any other praśastis published recently in the Catalogue of Sanskrit and Prakrit MSS. from the L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad.