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( xxxii)
Jain Education International
ENGLISH TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
A reader who is curious enough to read both the Hindi and the English versions presented here, will notice that the two translators have a somewhat different approach. M. Vinaya Sagar has, as he remarks, attempted to reproduce the original in all its contours. I have, on the other hand, intended to provide the reader with a version that tries to avoid some of the encumbrances of the original.
Let me explain. The Prakrit original, like many other canonic works, is replete with repetitions. Time and again whole passages are repeated word for word. A set of varnakas, which are fixed and stereotyped strings of descriptive epithets, are introduced recurrently in order to describe objects, events and even feelings. Indeed, the whole style of the Kalpasútra is pervaded by a strong repetitive tenor which hampers the flow. It also imparts to the work an unnecessary length. This had let ancient teachers to adopt a shortcut for notating passages to be repeated and we constantly encounter the phrase 'repeat from such a word to (java) such an such a word'.
A faithful translator has two courses open to him. He may either give the complete text of each repetition, or else, as is usual, he may follow the practice of ancient writers and give abbreviated instructions referring the reader back to the passage being reiterated. But whichever course one may adopt, the flow is bound to become cluttered and faltering. I have, therefore, chosen for the most part to omit or paraphrase repetitions.
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