Jain Journal 1997 04

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

Page 37

JAIN JOURNAL: Vol-XXXI, No. 4 April 1997
K.R. Chandra (Ed) Acaränga (first chapter of the first Śrutaskandha), Prakrit Jain Vidya Vikāsa Fund, Ahmedabad, 1997, price : Rs. 150.00.
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The editing of a Jaina Agama text - be it Śvetambara or Digambara-is one of the most difficult tasks of Prakrit scholars. For the last more than one hundred and fifty years, both occidental and oriental, scholars have been trying their best to edit Jaina Agama texts faithfully and correctly, and for this, they have accepted some principles for the Prakrit literature, and the Jaina Agama texts, in particular. Though J. Stevenson translated the Kalpasūtra along with the Navatattva (London, 1848), he did not mention the MSS from which he had translated the text. Later on, a critical edition was prepared by Jacobi (Leipzig, 1879). At present, though we find some discrepancies with the printed editions of the Kalpasūtra, it is still a kind of the earliest reference to the Kalpasūtra used by many scholars. But the best edited text of the Jaina canonical literature, as far as we know, is A. Weber's edition of the Bhagavati sūtra. (Ein Fragment der Bhagavati, in ABA. 1865 (pp. 367-444) and 1866 (pp. 155-352).
It was as early as 1865-66, Weber realized certain orthographic difficulties of the manuscript for selecting a particular reading. As a result, in his introduction he has laid down certain principles for editing Jaina canonical texts. Later on, Hermann Jacobi (Acarängasütra London, 1882), Pischel (Desināmamālā, Bombay, 1880) and many others have all faced the problems of editing Prakrit texts in general, and Jaina Agama texts, in particular. In modern times Hiralal Jain, A.N. Upadhye, Dalsukh Bhai Malbania, Hariballabh C. Bhayani and many others have edited Jaina Agama and Prakrit texts and encountered insurmountable difficulties in selecting certain readings for the texts whenever they have collated a text from some manuscripts.
When the world of Prakrit has been wavering for a long time to find out the correct and faithful reading of the Agama text, it was, at that time, the edition of K.R. Chandra's Acāränga, the first chapter of the first Śrutaskandha, appeared in the horizon a few months ago. Dr Chandra has been working on this text for a long time, and as a prelude to his edition he has written several articles and books on the problems of finding out the original language of the Agama text. The present text i.e. the edition of Acaränga, is an outcome of that long persistent labour. In his edition he has discussed again quite a lot on how to edit a Jaina Agama text, and what type of reading is to be selected for the restoration of the original language of the ArdhaMagadhi texts. It goes without saying that he has laboured much on