Atmanandji Jainacharya Janmashatabdi Smarakgranth

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Atmanand Janma Shatabdi Smarak Trust

Page 97

Necessity of Jain Research
more than e. g. early Buddhism the doctrine of Mahavira is one whole, wonderfully conceived on a grand scale and worked through to the most minute detail. A system like this, ingeniously built up out of idea and experience, in the course of time, is likely not to change, but to remain as it originated, and the vast postcanonical literature, as far as we know it, though reflecting variations in outward details, still shows the fundaments untouched until the present day, so it is well to be understood why the works of the mentioned learned authors and others are based upon later texts which were close at hand. But it is equally clear that Indology cannot be satisfied with this present state of things, as it were with contemplating the admirable superstructure of a building, but must sink down the spade to the fundaments dating from the heroic epoch. This would mean taking up critically to edit the holy texts themselves—the word taken in a wide sense, including some peripheral works and their Prakrit commentaries, the more so as the well deserving earlier prints of them, as far as they were undertaken, are out of stock since many years. It is the purpose of these lines to direct the attention of my readers to this old task of Jain research. I myself have modestly endeavoured to prepare the ground when writing my work "The Doctrine of the Jains according to the old Sources", published in German language early in 1935 (251 pp), where for the first time the reader will meet with a critical investigation based upon a detailed survey of the Agamas. The next step forward ought to be a handy edition of them. It goes without saying that such an undertakiug will give a mighty impulse to research work both in India and abroad. About forty years ago, Professor Leumann pointed out that the investigation in the scholastical literature of the Jains will throw new light upon the literary history of India during the early centuries of the Christian Era. Not less will the canonical scriptures yield a rich harvest to the investigators in one of the most important chapters of India's religious development. Not earlier than they are easily accessible and lucidly arranged the imposing figure of Mahavira, that mighty systematiser of Indian antiquity, will obtain its proper place in the eyes of all those in the West and East who will read his doctrines in his words sanctified by tradition.
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[ Shree Atmaramji