Jain Journal 1970 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 29

JANUARY, 1970
recent print25 is without any commentary whatever. Its name taken from Ardhamagadhi, is Suttagame. Both the Battist and the Suttagame are Sthanakvasi prints and, for that reason, they contain no more than 32 Agamas out of the traditional 45.
The old texts, in many cases, have been handed down to us in a very curious shape which makes them rather unintelligible for the unprepared reader. The copyists of olden time being confronted with innumerable repetitions have recoursed, as can be easily understood, to abbreviations which, however, violated the context. Up to this day the printed books pass over them as through thick and thin. The reader, indeed, is prepared to forbear as traditional and respectable peculiarities of Jaina style a certain monotony of question and answer, dry lists, and long complexes (though not altogether void of euphony) of what has turned out to be metrical passages 26. But he is longing for a less clumsy wording. This might be easily achieved by a rational method of dissolving those abbreviations and by providing the necessary references, a method which would result in a readable text where the valuable trend of thought now often concealed would eventually appear in a lucid form. It goes without saying that critical examination and comparison of traditions will remain indispensable. Let it be admitted that the want of cotrollable oldest manuscripts is often a stumbling stone in the way towards that ideal of a critical edition, Hundreds of Jaina works are still preserved in partly subterranean bhāṇḍāras where they were deposited centuries ago, and those precious libraries remained inaccessible since the conservatism of the owners could not overcome their disinclination towards their treasures being published. When Buhler was allowed to have a glance into the baḍa bhāṇḍār of Jaisalmer, he was misled as to the mass of what was preserved there. It was not earlier than a few years ago that a scholarly examination of bhāṇḍār manuscripts became feasible, and our thanks and respects are due to Muniraj Punyavijaya for his working towards that noble aim27.
135
The 'classical' Sanskrit commentary to the Svetambara canon represents the climax of a vast scholastic literature. Its predecessors in Prakrit, the Nijjuttis and Cunnis, were, for a long time, neglected by scholars. We might even say that, in a certain sense, this is still true today, for the publications of Cunnis issued in the course of the last
25
Sri Sutragama Prakasaka Samiti, Gurgaon Cantt., P.
26 the Vedha metre, discovered by Jacobi Ind. Stud. 17. p. 389ff.; later treatments by the Author, Worte...p. 3f.; Alsdorf in Asiatica (Festschrift Weller) p. 16.
27 See Alsdorf in Festschrift Schubring, p. 59f.