Cultural Study of Nisitha Curni

Author(s): Madhu Sen
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar

Page 9

PREFACE
A historical gap exists between the period after the reign of Harsa and the advent of the Muslims. It suffers from the lack of chronological records which obscures the effort to depict the cultural life. The discovery of Nišitha Cūrni, an encyclopaedic work of the early medieval period, gives adequate opportunities to deduce inferences of the cultural life of the people against a definite chronological background.
Though composed in the last quarter of the 7th century A.D., the work existed in its manuscript form till 1960 when it was published for the first time from Agama Pratisthāna, Sanmati Jñāna Pīgha, Agra by the invaluable efforts of Upadhyay Shri Amar Muni and Muni Shri Kanhaiya Lal "Kamal'. However, a cyclostyled copy was brought out prior to this publication by Ācārya Vijayaprema Sūri and Pt. Śrī Jambūvijaya Gani, which was made available in a few Jain Bhandaras and for the personal perusal of Jain Munis. Dr. Jain in his thesis Life in Ancient India as depicted in the Jaina Canons had for the first time drawn the attention of the scholars towards the invaluable contents of the text by quoting certain references from the Mss. of the Niśītha Cūrņi. This largely hastened the demand towards the publication of the text. A short introduction to Niśitha was written by Pt. Dalsukh Malvania in March 1959, which is added to the present edition of the text. An article has also been published by Pt. Kalyā navijaya Gani, which mainly deals with the contents and authorship of the Nišitha. The vast cultural material which thus remained virgin has been endeavoured to be taken up in the present work by a comprehensive study of the various aspects of the cultural life as depicted in the NC. The importance of this cultural information lies in the fact that it has been culled out extensively from a monastic soure—from a text which basically intends to lay down the rules for the mode of