Jainalogy In Western Publications

SR No.: 269649
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kenji Watanabe
Publisher: Kenji Watanabe
Total Pages: 12
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 2

viii
closely connected, especially in connection with their joint Studien zum Mahāniśiha. Kapitel 1-5. Deleu, who was in charge of chapters 1-3, soon prepared a critical edition of this portion of the text (on the base of eight manuscripts and a commentary) as well as an English translation followed by critical notes and a glossary. The edition is preceded by an Introduction presenting the main linguistic and metrical characteristics of this peculiar text (1963). - I still remember how Schubring expressed his appreciation of J. Deleu's competence and his affection for this gifted scholar and his fine personality. Hence it was a great pleasure for Schubring when, on 15 February 1964, he was awarded the Doctorate Honoris Causa of the Rijksuniversiteit te Gent, and on this occasion was the guest of the Deleu family.
It was therefore natural to entrust J. Deleu with the task of publishing Schubring's posthumous edition of the Nayadhammakahão, which appeared in 1978, after Deleu's study of Uvangas 8-12 of the Jain Canon (1969, in Dutch) and his very useful contribution to the Wörterbuch der Mythologie, on "Die Mythologie des Jinismus" (1978).
Nevertheless, Jozef Deleu's masterpiece is his book Viyahapannatti (Bhagava). The fifth Anga of the Jaina Canon. Introduction, Critical Analysis, Commentary & Indexes. It followed and developed one of Schubring's suggestions, and was published in 1970, about a year after Schubring (who had eagerly read the manuscript) had passed away. It is edited "in memory of Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. WALTHER SCHUBRING", and can be considered to be a fine work of the Schubring Jainological school. The importance of the Viyahapannatti had never been underestimated. Schubring himself, as Deleu remarks, not only "devoted a few excellent pages to it" in his Worte Mahāvīras, but also quoted this treatise more frequently than any other in his Lehre der Jainas. No one, however, had spared enough time to deal systematically and completely with this "monumental text" which, "in fact, presents itself as a kind of bewildering omnium gatherum of episodes, discussions, expositions, detached statements, calculations, references and quotations". Following the text scrupulously, J. Deleu gives a critical and intelligible account of its contents; moreover, in an elaborate introduction he