Bruhat Katha kosha

Author(s): Harishen Acharya,
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 28

PREFACE BY THE GENERAL EDITOR
PANDIT Śrī Nāthuramji Premi, my learned and sincere friend, used to come occasionally to Poona and stay with me for some time when I was staying there to offer my active, helpful co-operation in the foundation and deve. lopment of the famous Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, bet 25 years. He applied himself chiefly to writing various important articles, essays etc. throwing light on Jaina literature and History. Just at this time I had also started a research quarterly, styled the Jain Sahitya Samsodhaka, with an object that people may get benefit of our research and literary activities. In the first issue of that journal, Pt. Premiji had contributed one article, giving a brief description of Harişenācārya's Kathākosa the manuscript of which we saw for the first time in that Institute.
From that day, Premiji had cherished an intense desire to see it published and I am glad to announce that even after twentyfive years it sees the light of the day, in such an excellent form, at the hands of such an accomplished scholar and editor as my learned friend Dr. A. N. Upadhye, M. A., D. Litt. I take all the the more pride because it appears as a valuable work of the welcomed Singhi Jain Series. An exhaustive Introduction containing 122 pages and evincing mature erudition, itself testifies to the amount of labour and time the learned editor has given to the work. It is the first of its kind so far as it makes autoritative statements regarding the wide range and variety of the Jain narrative literature and the nature of its relation with the general narrative literature of India. Dr. Upadhye has passingly referred in his Introduction to some of the many works written by the Jain men of letters with a view to inculcate principles of religion and ethics. One of such distinguished works which is about to be published along with this work is that of Jinesvarăcărya, in elegant Prākrit.
During my searches and investigations of the Jaina Bhāņdārs, I have come across quite a great number of story works, big and small, the names of whose authors are not known, besides the reputed works of the well known writers such as Devabhadra, Naracandra, Subhasila, Rajasekhara, Jinasāgara, Hemavijaya and others. I have many such collections with me and the number of stories, occurring therein, goes beyond several hundreds. Some of the stories deal with historical topics while some are devoted to subjects of