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292
आचाराङ्ग
worth careful study.
Dr. Chandra has taken enormous trouble for this guide to the next generation. Generations of scholars will remain indebted to him for this beacon of linguistic research.
I take this opportunity to palce before the scholarly world the need of a critical edition of the AMG Canon. The present editions as amply demonstrated by Dr. Chandra, are not that satisfactory. Fortunately Gujarat and Rajasthan have a good tradition of preserving ancient MSS. There are eminent scholars and Ācāryas who can competently bring out such a reliable critical edition of the canon. Formation of such a Research Institute will be the real fruit of the labour of persons like Dr. Chandra. The Trustees of Seth Kasturbhai Lalbhai Trust deserve the thanks of the scholarly world for their donation of a publication grant to this valuable work.
'तुलसी प्रज्ञा', लाडन, सितम्बर, १९९२
- Prof. G. V. Tagare
The language of the Svetāmbara Jain Canons is called Ardhamāgadhi. The total number of texts is 45 or 46. Somc of thcsc, as the Āyaraṁga, the Süyagadaṁga and the Uttarajjhayaņaare very old and their tradition may go back to the first recension of the Agamas at Pataliputra in c. 3 rd century B. C. if not earlier. Others, such as the Nandi may be ascribed to the period of the last recension at Valabhi in c. 5th century A. D., it being authored by Devardhi himself, the chief of the Valabhi Vācanā. So onc may conclude that compilation of the Āgamas was spread over at least a period of seven to eight hundred years.
The Magadha empire of the 6th-5th century B. C. being the main field of Lord Mahāvira's and his ganadharas' activities, it may be assumed that the Āgamas were formulated in Māgadhi or the eastern dialect of that period, which later, for certain reasons, was given the appellation of Ardhamāgadhi. This too may be conceded that in the first recension at Pāțaliputra the original language was
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