Essence Of Jaina Scriptures

Author(s): Jagdish Prasad Jain
Publisher: Kaveri Books

Page 22

XX
THE ESSENCE OF JAINA SCRIPTURES
translations and commentaries thereon in different languages. I have benefitted greatly from dozens of other books and articles on the subject, written by numerous Indian and foreign scholars.
The present translation of the treatise Pravachanasara is based on the English translation by Professor Barend Faddegon, a Dutch Indologist, of the Prakrit gathas (verses) of Pravachanasara of Kundakunda together with the Sanskrit commentary, Tattva-dipika, by Amrtachandra. To that end, Faddegaon has indeed rendered a great service to the Jains since it is probably the only significant Digambara text authored by Kundakunda, which has been translated by a European scholar. Faddegon deserves credit for undertaking the painstaking task of translating the complicated Sanskrit sentences of Amrtachandra, which, as F.W. Thomas observes, “renders the work of interpretation and translation extremely difficult”. He undertook this laborious task at the “behest” of Prof. Thomas, even when he was not feeling well due to a constitutional nervous disease-for “the joy of a deeper and better understanding” of the Jain religion.
Faddegon has translated not only the text of Pravachanasra but also the Tattvadipika commentary of Amrtachandra thereon honestly and sincerely with an open and critical mind, which is reflected in his notes. At some places, the notes give a comparative perspective of various systems of philosophy including Jainism, Buddhism and Vaisheshika on certain issues. It is indeed a matter of deep concern and regret that no Jaina or non-Jaina scholar, Indian or foreign, has so far deemed it necessary to translate the other two commentaries by Amrtachandra of Kundakunda's two other outstanding works, viz. Panchastikayasara and Samayasara. A.N. Upadhye has translated only Kundakunda’s verses of Pravachanasara text, but not Amrtachandra's commentary thereon. Faddegon's translation of both Kundakunda's text and Amrtachandra's commentary thereon, A.N. Upadhye says, reached his hands very late, when all the forms of his translation and Introduction had already been printed.
Faddegon's mastery of Sanskrit is evident from the fact that he taught the Mimansa and Nyaya systems of philosophy and Vyakaran (Sanskrit Grammar) to Ludo Rocher and wrote on Panini and the Vaisheshika system. Even Upadhye, who has called his own translation of Pravachanasara text of "tentative character”, states that he is "benefitted by some of the ideas of the late B. Faddegon who has so