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a true devotee of Lord and guru and a saint with deep faith in the word of Agams. By writing Hindi commentaries on voluminous Agams including Sutrakritanga, Prashnavyakaran and Bhagavati, his talented disciple Pravartak Sri Amar Muni ji M. S. has made valuable contribution towards completing the remaining part of the mission of service to the canons launched by Acharya Samrat Shri Atmaram ji M. S. In the same noble tradition of Agam-editing, a new and commendable effort is being launched with the publication of Illustrated Uttaradhyayan Sutra.
I have in my hand a new illustrated edition of Kalpasutra published a few years back. It contains miniature paintings of old style. Although they have their own importance due to antiquity and gold-work, there is very little to appreciate in terms of illustrative attraction, simplicity of narrative representation and colour-scheme. I have not come across any illustrated publication of any Agam other than Kalpasutra. When we conceived the project of publishing a pictorial edition of Uttaradhyayan Sutra about one year back we had no reference of any ancient illustrated Agam available to us. We contacted many scholars and searched a few manuscript libraries for this. During this exploration we had the opportunity to see the manuscript library of Tiloka Ratna Sthanakvasi Jain Pariksha Board, Ahmadnagar. With the blessings of Pujya Acharya Samrat Shri Anand Rishi ji M.S. we were liberally shown numerous illustrated manuscripts by Shri Kundan Rishi ji M. S. himself. Among those we found some useful illustrations from Uttaradhyayan Sutra including a very important illustration of Bharanda bird. After that I spent two days exploring ancient illustrated manuscripts of Agams in the manuscript library, Jain Sahitya Mandir, of the renowned art historian Shri Vijaya Yashodeva Suri ji M. S., at Palitana. Acharya Shri Yashodeva Suri ji M. S. himself showed me some copies of Uttaradhyayan Sutra written in golden letters including one with gold-work illustrations. This proved to be of great help in understanding the old style of illustrations and in redoing them in modern style. We will always remain indebted to the said libraries and acharyas.
Sixty one multi-coloured illustrations have been prepared for thirty six chapters of this edition of Uttaradhyayan Sutra. Due to the limitation of the number of illustrations many useful themes had to be left alone. In conceiving the illustrations, the descriptions from commentaries, descriptions from other scriptures and the traditional information have helped us. As these illustrations are based on the information available in commentaries and tradition, there are chances of errors as well as difference of opinion because no ancient pictorial references are available. There can be different presentations according to individual perception. Therefore, we have no prejudice or dogma about these pictures. It is only a well meant sincere effort to make the serious and abstract themes of Agams easy and
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