Jain Journal 1970 01

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

Page 57

JANUARY, 1970
163
• It would perhaps be premature to discuss already at this stage the scheme for the work to be carried out with the help of the Concordance. However a word or two may not be out of place. In 1900 the German Indologist Professor Ernst Leumann finished the manuscript of his famous Ubersicht uber die Āvasvaka-Literatur (Survey of the Āvašyaka Literature). This survey is almost without parallel in the history of Indology. It contains highly specialized studies in a body of literature which was then available almost exclusively in the form of Manuscripts. The existence of the Āvaśyaka Literature was then practically unknown outside India. Since Leumann's days some progress has been made in his field of research, yet the problems touched upon by Leumann have but rarely been discussed. Prof. Leumann did not select the Āvašyaka Literature at random, and his insight was supported by good reasons. The corpus of this literature occupies a keyposition from two viewpoints. On the one hand the basic text, namely the Āvašyakaniryukti, is closely connected with many early texts such as the Anuyogadvārasūtra, the Oghaniryuktibịhadbhāsya, and the Mulācāra. On the other hand the exegetical literature connected with it is more comprehensive than that on any other text of Jaina literature. It would therefore appear that the Concordance should first of all be utilized in order to continue the work begun by Leumann. Critical (or fairly critical) editions of texts like the Āvaśyakaniryukti are called for, editions which utilize to the fullest extent the parallels supplied by the Concordance.
At the same time it will be necessary to prepare 'sample studies', just as in an excavation we sink trial trenches in addition to surfacedigging. It would for example be interesting to study the relationship between two or more given texts (in particular 'text' and commentaries) on the basis of a portion selected for the purpose. Let us not be misunderstood. Commentaries, even later commentaries, are not a matter to be discussed in footnotes. Commentaries are works in their own right. Again, all the early Jaina commentaries are either anonymous or based on anonymous works, and anonymous works are not homogeneous. They consist of different layers or of different units welded, not into homogeneous but into heterogeneous 'wholes'. Thus scores of sample studies would be required in order to ascertain for a maximum of cases the relationship between a number of given texts for a given portion of one of the texts.
On April 13, 1969 German Indology suffered a severe loss in the death of Professor Walther Schubring, one of the pioneers in Jaina studies.