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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1898.
read before the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, entitled Ueber die indische Sekto der Jaina' (1887).
It is well known that the writings of the Jainas, apart from their intrinsic value as religious writings and their bearing on the history of religion, are of the greatest importance for the history of Indian literature and civilisation in general. For the Jaina monks, much like the monks of the Middle Ages in Europe, did not contont themselves with the study of their own sacred literature, but devoted themselves as eagerly to the study of various branches of learning, and we owe to them many excellent works on grammar and astronomy, besides both original compositions and commentaries on works of poetry. In his important paper, Ueber das Leben des Jaina-Mönchs Hemachandra' (Denkschriften der Kais. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Wien, 1889), Bühler has given as an account of the life and works of a famous Jaina monk, who distinguished himself in the profane sciences, especially as # grammarian and lexicographer.
By his labourg in connection with Jaina literature, Bühler was led to the study of Prakrit and we owe to him many valuable contributions to Prakfit grammar and lexicography.
But all this pioneer work, to which Bühler was led by his epigraphic researches, and which would have been enough to make the repatation of any scholar, was with him only a small part of his work. His chief aim, which he never lost sight of, was always the elucidation of the political history of ancient India. I need only refer to his epigraphic and historical investigations reported in numerous articles and papers found in the Indian Antiquary, in the Epigraphia Indica, in the Vienna Oriental Journal, in the Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenländischen Gesellschaft, in the Proceedings of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna, and in some volumes of the Archaeological Survey of India. Especially to the famous Edicts of King Aboka he devoted no end of time and patient labour, and how much he has done for the decipherment and correct interpretation of these important inscriptions is well known to all who take an interest in the history of ancient India.
But no less important than the inscriptions seemed to him the few, but all the more valoable, historical works of the Hindus - the historical romances and chronicles - as well as the accounts of Chinese and Arabian travellers on India. In 1874, when searching the library of Jesalmir, he discovered an old palm-leaf MS. which (to his great delight) contained the Vikramánkadevacharita, a chronicle composed by the Jaina Bilhana. He started at once to copy the whole MS. He had not much time to spare, but together with his friend Prof. Jacobi (who was his companion during this tour) the whole work was copied within seven days. An edition of this work, with a valuable historical introduction, was published by Bühler soon after in the Bombay Sanskrit Series. Another historical work, the Rajataranging or the Chronicles of the Kings of Kasmir, also attracted his special attention. In his famous Detailed Report he devoted to this work a long discussion, in which he dwelt on its importance for the history of India, and pointed out the oldest MSS, which, later on, formed the basis for Dr. Stein's excellent edition of this work. Professor Sachau's edition and translation of Alberúni's famous account of India excited Bühler's liveliest interest, and when the translation was published, he devoted to it a review of 30 pages in the Indian Antiquary (1890), pointing out the eminent importance of this work for the History of India.
All this was only intended as a kind of preliminary work for the great scheme which he had in his mind for years to write a connected history of Ancient India. That this scheme was not to be carried out, is probably the most deplorable loss, which Indian studies have suffered by the untimely death of the eminent scholar, who — with his wonderful historical instinct, his critical tact, his accuracy, and his ever unbiased judgment was the very man to write a history of India. And it is a fact only too well known that a history of ancient India, based on secure epigraphic and literary dates, is one of the greatest desiderata of Indology.
