Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals

Author(s): N L Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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Biology in Jaina Treatise on Reals
However, it is only the earliest Digambara commentary by Pujyapada which has been translated in English by S.A. Jain under the title 'Reality' (1960). In addition, G.R. Jaina has a modern commentary on its fifth chapter alone under the title of 'Cosmology,Old and New' (1942). However, the other advanced commentaries based on this remain unexplored in this regard. The Akalanka commentary 'Rajavartika' is one of them though its Hindi translation (in fact, summary) appeared in 1953-57. It has manifold importance. It was, therefore, thought proper to translate it into English. However, the treatise is too large for full translation in one-go. Accordingly, it was considered to be taken up in stages. In view of my personal background, my interest got concentrated first on chapter 2 and 5 as they contained normally all the Jaina postulates of Biological and Physical sciences. Accordingly, I submitted a proposal to the authorities of INSA, Delhi for sponsorship and assistance as they have been encouraging such activities since 1961. It was fortunately accepted in 1993. However, the work involved not only translation but critical and supplementary notes also on the basis of other commentaries and current trends. These notes will serve to evaluate the status of our scientific knowledge during the Akalanka period of eighth century which is taken as a dark period in the history of eastern science.
There has always been a more intense feeling than S.A. Jain that it is extremely difficult to convey fully the spirit and charm of Sanskrta into English and that many expositional peculiarities of Sanskrta cannot be literally translated. In fact, it seems an uphill task to translate the higly compounded and very long sentences (covering many lines) involving a complex terminology. It is natural to realise that Sanskrta language could be highly condensed in words to express lengthy meanings requiring many sentences in English for their elaboration. Despite this. I have tried to do justice in rendering the essense of the original contents as faithfully as possible in simpler English. Methodology: The methodology adopted in this project has been worked out as below: (a) Procurement of important editions of (i) Hindi and English translations of basic texts of Tattvārtha Sūtra and Tattvārthādhigama Bhāsya (ii) original or Hindi/English translations of different commentaries on the text along with Rājaa-Vártika and (iii) other associated or related literature including research papers and journals. (b) A general study of the above literature in (a) was carried out to define the nature of English translation. Four special points emerged out of it : (i) Avoidance of grammatical references : It is found that there has been no tradition of aphorismic/semi-aphorismic texts in English. Here no format of etymological or grammatical justification is found. I have, therefore, purposely avoided many grammatical references and sections which do not cast any impression on the aphorismic and conceptual value of the text and which do not have much credit for the general reader. Nevertheless, those text contents have
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