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JAINA BIBLIOGRAPHY
1755
2485
Jinasenāchārya and Guņabhadrāchārya- Mahapurāņa in three handy volumes (Murtidevi Jain Granthamālā Sanskrit Series, Kasi), 1954.
The Sanskrit text, Hindi paraphrase, alphabetical Index of the verses and an Introduction in Hindi by Pannalal JAIN, Vol. III--preface in English by H.L. JAIN and A.N. UPADHYE.
The Mahapurāna (MP) or the Trişaști-lakşaņa-mahapurana-sam graha (TLMPS) is a great narrative of the ancient times, basically describing the lives of 63 salakapurşas, namely, 24 Tirthankaras, 12 Cakravartins, 6 Balabhadras, 9 Nārāyanas and 9 Pratinārāyaṇas recognised and honoured by Jainism. These biographies also cover their earlier births. These biographies embody in the work mythological, religious, dogmatical, sacramental and ritualistic details, and thus make the whole work almost an encyclopedia of Jainism. We get here a graphic description of the evolution of human society along the march of time and of what the great souls of the past did for man in the beginning. The MP. is a magnificent traditional history so far as the great heroes of Sramanic culture are concerned. This MP. has served as model to authors like Puspadanta, Hemacandra, Āsādhara, Cāmundarāja and the author of Tamil Śrīpurāņa, etc. who composed their works in Apabhramsa, Sanskrit, Kannada and Tamil. The MP. consisting of 76 Purāņas is divided into two parts-(1) Adipurāņa in 47 Parvans and Uttara-purāna in 29 Parvans. The total Granthagra comes to about 20 thousand ślokas of the Adipurāna, 42 Parvans and three verses more were composed by Jinasena (about 12 thousand ślokas) and the remaining work by his pupil Gunabhadra. The Adipurāna covers the biography of the first Tirthankara and first Cakravartin, and the Uttarapurāna deals with the lives of the remaining. Jainasena, the disciple of Virasena, whose Jayadhavala, commentary he completed in 837 A.D., occupies a unique place in Indian literature by both the quantity and quality of his contributions. His disciple Gunabhadra completed his Mahāpurāņa posthumously some year before 897 A.D. He was a contemporary of Rāstrakūta Amoghavarşa. Sometime before 783 A.D., he completed the Pārsvabhyudaya, a Sanskrit Kāvya, which incorporates in every verse one or two lines of the Meghadūla of Kālidäsa in their serial order, the remaining lines being composed by himself.
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I. B. HORNER-The Middle Length Sayings. (Majjhimanikaya), vol. I, London, 1954.
P. 39. Anangasuttu (No blemishes)—The naked ascetic, Pandu's son, who had formerly been the son of a Vehicle maker. Commentary on Majjhima-nikāya 1. 151 explains ajıvaka as nagga samana,
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