Jain Journal 1970 01

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

Page 31

JANUARY, 1970
stage of New Indian (Gujarati and Marathi) already mentioned, (2) in some cases hyper-Sanskritization of words apparently Prakritic, (3) borrowings from dictionaries and grammars, (4) use of words of unknown origin. Apart from Amitagati's Dharmaparikṣā (ed. Mironow) this jugement was based upon Svetambara works. A description of the origin and progress of linguistic studies in the Prakrits (Ardhamagadhi, Jaina Maharastri, Jaina Sauraseni) and Apabhramsas in Jaina literature is beyond our scope.
When stopping further publication of the Avasyaka Erzahlungen Leumann had consoled the reader with his Ubersicht uber die Avasyaka Literature to come out in the very next time. Materials from manuscripts and manuscripts only, a long list of which Leumann has given in ZDMG 45 and 46, had been collected for the purpose of laying bare the different layers of an extensive scholastic literature concerning certain indispensable (āvasyaka) formulae of daily devotion. By this great work he was many decades ahead of his time. But, unfortunately, in this case too, printing was stopped when the 14th form (in folio) had been composed. Not until 34 years later this fragment, rich in contents, but difficult to study, was published by the author who was fortunate enough to find the proofs being preserved 29.
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All history of literature, a building, as it were, has for its ground floor the bio-bibliographical materials. Jaina research would have enjoyed the great luck of having them at its disposal, if Klatt's Onomasticon had been completed and printed. Eight volumes from his own hand in alphabetical order contain what was within his reach to collect data concerning Jaina authors and works. But he fell severely ill and never recovered. The work was estimated to fill some 1100 pages in print, but no more than 55 pages have been printed as a specimen thanks to Weber and Leumann30. The first to become a bibliographer of Jainism was Guerinot by his Essai de bibliographie Jaina (1906). A modern standard was not reached until 1944, when Velankar's Jinaratnakoşa appeared, where the Jaina works have been catalogued, while a second volume containing their authors is still waiting for being published. A Primitive forerunner had been the Jaina Granthavali published by the Jaina Svetambara Conference in 1908.
29 Leumann, Ubersicht uber die Avasyaka-Literatur, aus dem Nachlass hrsg. v. Walther Schubring, Hamburg 1934. Obituary by the same, ZDMG 87, pp. 69-75.
30
Specimen of a literary-biographical Onomasticon by Dr. Joh. Klatt, Leipzig 1892. His obituary by Leumann, IA p.23, 169.