Jain Journal 1970 01

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

Page 55

JANUARY, 1970
161
While acknowledging our indebtedness to these concordances and to the excellent editions of most of the works concerned, we cannot overlook the fact that several important and voluminous texts remain unedited to this day : the Bịhatkalpabrhadbhāşya, the Oghaniryuktibịhadbhāșya, the NiśithabỊhadbhāşya, and the Pañcakalpabhāşya. To these at least two Cūrņis must be added—those on the Pañcakalpabhāşya and on the Byhatkalpabhāsya. It is gratifying to note that the Seminar for Prakrit Stucies held at Kolhapur in May 1968 has put forward a recommendation emphasizing the need for publishing these texts :
“The Seminar suggests that the following works need imniediate attention : ... Publication of more important exegetical works in Parkrit like the Curņis and Bhāşyas etc....”
We do hope that this recommendation will meet with the proper response. The Berlin Concordance will remain a torso unless editions of all the relevant texts become available. It is not possible for those who are responsible for the Concordance as such to edit these long texts themselves.
Even a comparatively small undertaking like the present one requires technical preparations and financial aid. The undersigned would like to acknowledge already, at this stage, the generous financial help extended by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
The chief consideration in the technical preparation of the Concordance is to avoid time-consuming labour wherever possible, and this necessitated the use of punch-cards of a simple type. The procedure adopted is the following: First of all the texts to be included are photocopied. From the photo-copies strips containing the verses are cut out and pasted on punch-cards. After this the cards receive punches indicating the text and the position of the relevant verse within the text. Naturally each card is reserved for one single verse. The cards are then arranged alphabetically i.e. according to the beginning of the first line of the verse. In the next stage the cards are again punched, this time in order to indicate the position of each verse within the alphabet. After the alphabetical punching the verses are compared in order to trace the parallels : Wherever two or more verses are identical this is noted on the respective cards. This is the work of the first phase.
However, much more work will be necessary to ensure complete coverage of the material. It was mentioned above that the verses are
1
See “Proceedings of the Seminar of Scholars in Prakrit Studies, 22nd to 25th May, 1968" (Kolhapur 1969), p.43.