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Shri Jaina Confertnce' Herald.
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as the Hitopadcsha and Kalidasa's Fazu, when first translated, were enthfusiastically hailed by the educated class of the Europeans, and translated again and again into the diff erent languages of the leading nations of Europe. Of the Rgveda and of large parts of the Bauddha holy scriptures several European translations are easily accessible. But trauslations of works belonging to the Jaina literature are compa ratively rare, and they are only known to the scholars. True, there are several European translations of the Jaina Panchatantra, in its purer form as well as in its contaminated fom which owes its existence to Kosegarten's want of critical spirit * But neither the European and Indian editors nor the many translators were aware of the fact that, as I proved in my paper ' Ueber die Jainarezensionen des Pancatantra' (i. e. 'On the Jaina recensions of the Panchataxtra'), this text is a Jaina text. All of them believed it to be the work of either a Hinduistic Brahmana, or else of a Bauddha.
This fact sheds a glaring ray of light on the whole situation. Buehler, who was of opinion that even in the writings of the greatest Jaina scholars, as Malagagiri and Hemachandra, there occurred real grammatical mistakes, was not able to detect any text more suitable for the instruction in the higher Sanskrit classes of the Indian colleges than the Jaina Panchatantra which he thought to be the work of a Brahmana. Thousands of young Brahmanas and all the Europeans Sanskrit students have read this text as one of their first Sanskrit readings, and have based, in a large measure their Sanskrit knowledge on it. Btpfey translated it, and based on it his world-renowned work on the Pancha tantra, by which he laid the foundation-stone of the now eagerly cultivated science of Comparative Story Literature. But nobody, not even the Jainas themselves, were aware of the fact that this celebrated text was the work of some Jaina charya. I have just finished a work on the History of the Panchatantra, and in a later contribution to your fa giga
* See Harward Oriental Series, vol. xii, p. 17 and p. 51 ff
| SR No. | 536627 |
| Book Title | Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1915 07 08 09 Pustak 11 Ank 07 08 09 |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Mohanlal Dalichand Desai |
| Publisher | Jain Shwetambar Conference |
| Publication Year | 1915 |
| Total Pages | 394 |
| Language | Gujarati |
| Classification | Magazine, India_Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald, & India |
| File Size | 11 MB |