________________
REVIEWS
Narayan M. Kansara
JAINISM AND PRAKRIT IN ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL INDIA (Essays for Prof. Jagdish Chandra Jain : Felicitation Volume) edited by N.N. Bhattacharyya. Publ. Manohar, Delhi, 1994, pp. X + 462. Rs.500/-.
The volume consists of two sections/parts, the first one being devoted to nine articles, viz., a biographical sketch of Prof. J.C. Jain, list of books and articles by Prof. J.C. Jain, a profile of Prof. Jain by Vilas Sangave, reminiscences of Prof. Jain's time as a research scholar in Germany by Werner F. Menski, about his fulfilling and fruitful years by Chakresh Jain, excerpts from a letter of Mukla Raj Anand, Praņāmāñjali by S.D. Laddu, trubutes by Margaret Walter, Maria Helena De Bastos Freire, Lia Diskin and Mamalsliri Jain and a letter by Jainendra Navlakha.
Part/section two contains thirty-four articles by such renowned scholars, both Western and Indian, like K.R. Norman, W.B. Bollée, Dieter Schlingoff, Phillis Granoff, Werner F. Menski, Satya Ranjan Banerjee, B.N.Mukherjee, Madliav Deshpande, Hama Nagarajiah, S.P. Patil, V.M. Kulkarni, M.D. Vasanthraj, Padmanabh Jaini, H.C. Bhayani, S.C. Banerji, G.V. Saroja, K.D. Bajpai, Smita Salgal, Bhaskar Chatterjee, P.K. Agrawala, Pranabnanda Jaslı, Y.B. Singh, V.K. Thakur and Kalpana Jha, Prem Sunan Jain, Suniti Kumar Pathak, Vilas Sangave, B.N. Khandavadi, Rangan Kanti Jana, R.N. Nandi, S.D. Laddu, Ananda Chandra Sahoo, M.A. Dlaky, Surendra Gopal and Bansidhar Bhatt.
The topics discussed in these articles pertain to various aspects of Indological research, such as epigraplıy, linguistics, philology, Jaina Purānas, philosophy, literature, e.g. the Asokan inscriptions and Prakrit dialect geography, cerebral in Prakrit, Middle Indo-Aryan vocabulary, Jains and other "heretics" in Buddhist art, Prakrit inscriptions from South-East Asia, a persceptive of language attitude of Brahmanism versus Buddhism, influence of Prakrit on Kannada language, studies of Jinasena's Pūrva-Purāņa and Haribhadrasuri's Vinsati-Vimsatikā, Mahābhārata motifs in the Jaina Pandava-Purana, some ancient Indian versions of Oedipus, folk life in Prakrit and Apabhransa