Bibliography Of Studies Connected With Avasyaka Commentaries

SR No.: 269496
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Klaus Bruhn
Publisher: Klaus Bruhn
Total Pages: 18
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 8

These three prints (further details infra) are also referred to in an obviously provisional title for the complete (fourfold) Avaśyaka publication, as is seen in W. SCHUBRING's Vorwort:
"Ein im Nachlaß vorgefundener Titelentwurf lautet: Übersicht über die AvaśyakaLiteratur mit Excerpten aus der Silanka-Handschrift und einer photographischen Reproduction derselben sowie mit einer Pratika-Liste zum Višeşávaśyaka-Bhåşya.' Die hier genannten Bestandteile liegen dem Seminar ebenfalls in je einem Exemplar vor. Sie gleich den nachstehenden Bogen zu veröffentlichen verbot jedoch die Beschränktheit der Mittel und im Falle der Handschriftentafeln, nach deren Format Leumann den vorliegenden Textband einrichtete, die Unmöglichkeit der Vervielfäl
tigung." The 36 (35 plus 1) plates are facsimiles of a palm-leaf manuscript, dated samvat 1138 and containing Kotyåcårya's commentary on Jinabhadra's Višeşāvaśyaka Bhāşya (LEUMANN calls Kotyācārya "Silänka": BALBIR 1993a: 78). This remarkable manuscript has already been mentioned in one of KIELHORN's lists (see p.431 of the JRK). It is P XII 57 in LEUMANN'S numbering (Ubersicht: IV, fn.2) and is preserved in the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune (CBM: no. 1106, see pp.467-69). Plates 1-35 show the full obverse and reverse of the palm-leaves, whereas plate 36 reproduces script columns on the scale of 1:1, which were selected for palaeographical studies. The 36 facsimiles were to form a companion volume to the text portion of the Obersicht and, as mentioned by SCHUBRING, they account for the size of the four prints. For a few additional details, concerning mainly the unpublished prints, the reader is referred to LEUMANN's footnote (Übersicht: IV", fn.2), to LEUMANN 1894, and to CBM: 375. Of the various dates appearing on p.iv of the Übersicht we mention only the date of the printing of the study (1898). If we remember that in 1898 LEUMANN was just in the middle of his scholarly career, we wonder why he discontinued his Avaśyaka studies at this point in time (he was then thirty-eight) and did not return to them in his later years (he reached the age of seventy-two). Occasional publications on other Jaina subjects, as undertaken after 1898, cannot be called a continuation of his Avašyaka studies. In fact, LEUMANN became - broadly speaking after his Avaśyaka phase - once more a pioneer, but then in the completely different field of Saka studies, where he achieved a major breakthrough as early as 1892 (SCHUBRING 1934: 71). However, this cannot explain the complete break in his Avaśyaka studies. Nor can we reconstruct the history of the publication. The printing of the three parts must have been an expensive undertaking, and it is not known whether any publisher was involved or whether it was exclusively LEUMANN's doing. The long delay of the publication which appeared only a few years after LEUMANN's death is another mystery. It seems that at one point in time LEUMANN was keen to publish the incomplete manuscript as soon as possible, while later on he was equally keen to postpone its publication. The introduction to the Übersicht somewhat puzzles the reader (see especially pp.I and IV). On the one hand, LEUMANN does not conceal the difficulties of the work done by him: He stresses for example on p.I that he could only use manuscripts for his studies. On the other hand, he describes his work in an easy manner, combining less relevant and more relevant topics, and he does not try to present it as the milestone in the history of Jainology which it actually is. Also, LEUMANN first introduces the reader in a legible manner to the subject of the book (p.1", p. 1), but afterwards changes his style abruptly, suddenly expecting from the same reader familiarity with remote details of the Av.-literature. SCHUBRING wrote in his obituary (1934: 75): "LEUMANN hat die 'Riesenkräfte', die BÜHLER ihm einst mit Recht zusprach, Jahre hindurch einer 'Übersicht über die Avaśyaka-Literatur gewidmet und aus einer ungeheuren Stoffsammlung heraus ein kirchen- und literargeschichtliches Werk zu gestalten unternommen, mit dem er seiner Zeit weit voraus war. Hätte er es
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