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TULSI-PRAJNA
Dear Professor Chandra
Thank you for your letter advising me about the forthcoming seminar on the "Original Language of the Jain Canonical Texts".
It is very gratifying to learn that such an academic function has been organised and that so many distinguished scholars are participating in it. As you will know, sixty or so years ago Heinrich Lüders saw the desirability of describing the linguistic stratum underlying the Pali scriptures. The fragmentary results of this researeh appea red in his Beobachtungen über die Sprache des buddhistischen Urkapons and Buddhist philology has continued to benefit from his insights. Unfortunately, with the exception of Alsdorf, no western researcher has attempted to consider the question of the original language of the Jain scriptures that, so that it is very much to the credit of Indian scholars that they are beginning to address this sub icct in a critical and concerted manner. The first valuable results of this line of investigation are familiar to me from your Pracin Ardhamagadhi ki Khoj Mem and I would hope that the seminar leads to the emergence and dissemination of further knowledge about this fascinating subject. Only by challenging longheld presuppositions will scholarship on ancient texts be advanced. My best wishes for a successful and fruitful seminar.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Dundas Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit University of Edinburgh
Scotland, u, k.
Dear Dr. Chandra,
Thank you for your letter of 15/5/97. I am delighted to hear that the Seminar on the subject of the Original Language of the Jain Canonical Texts was so successful.
I was interested to hear the outcome of your deliberations. I think that it is very likely that Ardha-magadhi was the original language of the Jināgama or, since the language of the original Jinagama was presumably earlier than the Ardha-magadbi we possess now, perhaps we should call it Old Ardha-māgadhs. I believe that this language was affected by the Mābaraştri Prakrit after Jainism
Jain Education International
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| SR No. | 524592 |
| Book Title | Tulsi Prajna 1997 07 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Parmeshwar Solanki |
| Publisher | Jain Vishva Bharati |
| Publication Year | 1997 |
| Total Pages | 166 |
| Language | Hindi |
| Classification | Magazine, India_Tulsi Prajna, & India |
| File Size | 7 MB |