Agama And Tripitaka Comparative Study

Author(s): Nagaraj Muni
Publisher: Today and Tomorrows Printers and Publishers

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that of mine and so was their way, but at some moments of proximity of contact, our ways have become one. For me, their obscure and scattered footprints have become a guide, a source of inspiration. In this connection, I recall a booklet entitled Mahavira and Buddha by Dr. Lauman. Dr. Hermann Jacobi in his learned introduction to his translation of the Acārānga and Uttarādhyayana, etc. has touched on different facets of comparison. Dr. Cerpentier too has made a similar endeavour in his edited version of Uttarādhyayana Sūtra and in several other articles. Dr. Hoernle has touched this in Upāsakadasanga Sūtra, edited and translated by him. Dr. Schubring has, in his masterly work on Jainism, at innumerable places hinted openly at this. In his research work on Ajivakas Dr. Basham has in his own way thrown light on Mahāvira, Buddha and Gośālaka and their tradition.
Among the indigenous scholars, Pt. Sukhlālaji has in his articles unfolded many aspects of comparison. Pt. Becaradasa Dosi in his edition of the Bhagavati Sütra and Pt. Dalasukha Mälvaniã in his translation of Sthānānga-Samavāyānga have further unfolded the matter. Similarly Pt. Rahula Sāṁkrtyayana, Dharmānanda Kausāmbi, Dr. B.C. Law, Dr. Nathamala Tanțiyā, Dr. Jagadisa Candra Jaina, Dr: Govinda Candra Pāņde, Dr. Gulāba Candra Caudhari, Bharata Singha Upadhyāya and many other have enriched the process of comparison through their learned contributions. Most of them have said that this kind of research is important and useful and should be undertaken independently and in a wholesome manner.
From an acquaintance with these, I had a feeling, as it, I had unknowingly entered into a terrible forest which has no highway no track, no rest house. But soon I realised that the direction in which I was moving had at its end a citadel, and my path, apart from being an untrodden one, was the known and well understood path of many, before me.
I have divided the entire work into three volumes · Volume One: History & Tradition; Volume Two : Literature and Teaching; Volume Three : Philosophy & Ethics. Volume one on History & Tradition is just ready. I intend to write the three volumes before the 2500th Nirvana Anniversary of Bhagavan Mahāvira.
I have tried to safeguard the diction of this volume from the niceties of a pure literary work on the one hand and of dull philosophy on the other. Historical research is concerned with the establishment of truth. It has its own style which has no scope for ornamentation. Its yardstick is appropriateness of words and clarity of thought.