Abhidharmadipa with Vibhasaprabha Vrutti

Author(s): P S Jaini
Publisher: Kashi Prasad Jayaswal Research Institute

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- INTRODUCTION BY THE GENERAL EDITOR The K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute has great pleasure in presenting this scholarly edition of Abhidharmadipa and its Vzitti which were so far unknown to us either in their original form or through their Chinese or Tibetan translations. The work therefore marks a distinct contribution to our knowledge of Buddhism. Unfortunately the MS of the work was incomplete and so were the photographs taken in Tibet by Maha. pandita Rahula Samksityayana. The learned editor Dr. P. S. Jaini, however, has very thoroughly studied the relevant literature on the subject and given us a work, which will rank high among the scholarly editions of Sanskrit texts. In his Introduction the editor first gives us a summary of the contents of the Abhidharmadipa in section I and then enters into a general discussion about the nature of the Sutra and Abhidharma (section II), which is followed by a critical discussion of the relationship between the Sautrantika and the Abhidharmika (section III). The Institute had hoped to publish, earlier than this work, the Sanskrit text of the famous work of Vasubandhu, the Abhidharmakosabhashya; it had gone to the press earlier and half of it is also printed. Owing to conditions beyond our 'control, the printing of this work could not be finished before that of the present work. The Abhidharmakosabhashya and its commentary sphutartha by Yasomitra are closely connected with the Abhidharmadipa and its commentary, the Vtitti. It was desirable that the interrelations between the two should be properly indicated in the footnotes to the text of this work. Prof. Prahlad Pradhan, the editor of the Abhidharmakosabhashya, readily agreed to his press copy of the work being utilised for this purpose by Dr. P. S. Jaini and this magnanimity of his has enabled the latter to have a fairly long section in his Introduction (Section IV) reviewing critically the major controversies between the Kosakara and the Dipakara, as a result of the comparison of the texts of the works,