Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1915 Book 11 Jain Itihas Sahitya Ank

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference

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Shri Jaina Confertnce Herald.
as the Hitopadcsha and Kalidasa's wraza, when first trans. lated, were enthfusiastically hailed by the educated class of the Europeans, and translated again and again into the diff erent languages of the leading nations of Europe. Of the Rgveda and of large parts of the Bauddha holy scriptures several European translations are easily accessible. But trauslations of works belonging to the Jaina literature are compa. ratively rare, and they are only known to the scholars. True, there are several European translations of the Jaina Panchatantra, in its purer form as well as in its contaminated form which owes its existence to Kosegarten's want of critical spirit * But neither the European and Indian editors nor the many translators' were aware of the fact that, as I proved in my paper Ueber die Jainarezensionen des Pancatantra' (i. e. 'On the Jaina recensions of the Panchatartra'), this text is a Juina text. All of them believed it to be the work of either a Hinduistic Brahmana, or else of a Bauddha.
This fact sheds a glaring ray of light on the whole situation. Buehler, who was of opinion that even in the writings of the greatest Jaina scholars, as Malagagiri and Hemachandra, there occurred real grammatical mistakes, was not able to detect any text more suitable for the instruction in the higher Sanskrit classes of the Indian colleges than the Jaina Panchatantra which he thought to be the work of a Brahmana. Thousands of young Brahmanas and all the Europeans Sanskrit students have read this text as one of their first Sanskrit readings; and have based, in a large measure their Sanskrit knowledge on it. Bepfey translated it, and based on it his world-renowned work on the Pancha tantra, by which he laid the foundation-stone of the now eagerly cultivated science of Comparative Story Literature. But nobody, not even the Jainas themselves, were aware of the fact that this celebrated text was the work of some Jaina charya. I have just finished a work on the History of the Panchatantra, and in a later contribution to y जैन शासन
UUVU YUULIIG
* Sec Harward Oriental Series, vol. xii, 1. 17 and p. 51 tt