Book Title: Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1915 Book 11 Jain Itihas Sahitya Ank
Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference
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Narrative Literature of the Jainas.
inferior to the first Jaina variant; for when three sons or merchants or slaves are spoken of in our tale, the first narrator of course must have had the intention to tell that one of them increased the sum received, that the second did neither increase nor waste it, and that the third wasted it. This circumstance by itself would suffice to show, that our story cannot possibly have been transferred from the New Testament to the Siddhanta, even if it was not certain that the Siddhanta is older than the New Testament.
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These few instances which I have chosen out of a huge mass of interesting cases will suffice to show the high importance of the narrative literature of the Jainas. It is my aim to study this literature as thoroughly as prossible, and to collect in this way materials for a History of Indian narrative literature. But this aim can only be attained if I find helpmates amongst the Jaina scholars themselves, without whose assistance it will be very difficult for me to procure the Mss. of the most important works as well as informa tions which it is impossible to have in Europe.
To-day I beg to ask the following questions, hoping that some proprietor of a valuable Ms. or some other Jaina scholar will be able to answer them. This would be highly important not only for the literary history of the Jainas, but for that of India in general.
(1) Can any native scholar tell me, whether a more original Shukasaptati text than those published by Professor Schmidt is still in existence? I made the discovery that Schmidt's so called textus ornatior, published by him in 1898 is the work of a South Indian Brahmana named Cintamanibhatta. This Brahmana used for his compilation several Jaina texts of the fa, the one published by Professor Schmidt in 1893, and the one quoted by Hemachandra and used by the Persian translator Nachschebi, If any scholar knows of a copy of the Shukasaptati which bears the name or the date of its author, or of any Shukasaptati text which disagrees with those published by Professor Schmidt, he would greatly oblige me, if he would let me know this fact by letter,
