Angavijja

Author(s): Punyavijay, Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani
Publisher: Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad

Page 10

FOREWORD
The Angavijja-painnaya (Sk. Angavidyā-prakirnaka) is a unique work of its own kind preserved only in the Svetämbara Jain Agamic tradition. It is a science of divination from bodily signs, conditions, gestures etc. But incidentally it presents hundreds of classified lists of realia pertiaining to the socio-cultural life of India of the period upto (and several centuries prior to the fourth century. The data that thus becomes available is encyclopaedic in its range as is shown by the various word indexes given in the book, covering ninety large-sized pages. The work is also a mine of lexicographical data. The list of contents and the scholarly introduction of the late doctors Vasudevsharan Agrawal and Moti Chandra gives an adequate idea of the subject matter and cultural significance.
It is to the credit of Late Muni Punjyavijayaji who, in the midst of his numerous activities and untiring work, prepared a critical edition of this difficult Prakrit text, and gave to the Prakrit Text Society and its secretary Pt. Dalsukh Malvania for starting publication of the books under Prakrit Text Society Series. It is very unfortunate that no full-length studies of the various aspects of this work of unparallel importance have appeared eventhough some fifty years have lapsed after its publication.
The work was out of print for several years. We are grateful to Acharya VijayaShilchandrasuriji, who as an active well-wisher of the Society arranged for this reprint.
H. C. Bhayani President, Prakrit Text Society.