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JULY, 1981
production and cannot, from its findings and recommendations, give a sense of direction to the Jaina community. For the rest, this is a good, and perhaps, a very comprehensive work on the Jaina community by one of its members and will remain a standard thing for many years
to come.
39
VARDHAMAN JIVAN KOS or Cyclopaedia of Vardhamana (in Hindi), Part I, compiled by Srichand Choraria, published by Jaina Darsan Samiti, Calcutta, 1980. Pages 51 +584. Price Rs. 50.00/65 sh.
This is rather belated publication of the life-story of Vardhamana, better known as Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of the Jainas, and has more to say on the man as Mahavira than as Vardhamana. Hence the title is likely to be misleading. It is belated because it could not take its place alongside the plethora of literature on Mahavira that appeared in 1975. But better late than never.
The work follows the line laid down by the late Mohanlal Banthia, viz., that of bringing together between two covers relevant quotations from the orthodox and lesser Agamic texts on particular topics of philosophical significance and two such works one on Tinges and the other on Activity have already appeared, and the reviewer understands that material for many more is already in an advanced stage. The present work is the third in the series and breaks away from the previous two in this that it is not on a philosophical theme. Since as per declaration, this volume is Part I, a second one is expected on Vardhamana-Mahavira, before attention is given to another philosophical topic.
Strictly speaking, no life sketch of Vardhamana Mahavira was produced during his life-time or shortly after his death by any one who had seen him and known him, and the only thing that we know from early canonical texts, like the Acaranga, is stray reference or a few place names he had visited and persons he had inspired, which could never be the source material for the preparation of a biography. The earliest biography of Mahavira, Parsva and Adinatha Rsabha, Kalpa Sutra of Bhadrabahu, is a production after a gap of 2 centuries, when Mahavira had ceased to be a man and had become a memory, a tradition, a sanctified personality, a beacon light. The Kalpa Sutra uses a mechanical model in which all the 23 Tirthankaras are made to fit in, and the mechanical model itself is too scrapy because a Tirthankara, who comes with a spiritual mission, has no earthly axe to grind. The Kalpa Sutra itself has received the touch of many hands, besides that of Bhadrabahu. The only one point in favour of this early work is that as a biographical sketch
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