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JAINA GAZETTE. [June & July Southern Panchatantra, of the Hitopadesha, and of the two oldest Jain recensions, i.e., the textus simplicior, and Purnabhadra's text. Tandavaraya Mudaliar's text, which faithfully follows the Marathi version, has been translated into English and is a much used school book in the Deccan.
Moreover I possess a copy of a manuscript which now be longs to a Brahman living in Benares. The original of this copy is in Tailanga script. Hence it must have been written in the Carnatic. It contains an unfinished recension composed by Dharmapandita and is mainly, though not exclusively, based on the two oldest Jain recensions.
Finally, there is the Tantrakhyan (not Tantrakhyika) of which three recensions are to-day known in Nepal. The first and most original one contains only the Katha Shloka ; the Second contains besides them prose stories in Sanskrit, and the third prose stories in Newari. The first of these 3 recensions appears to have been brought to Nepal from the Deccan. As in one of its stanzas the stars are stated to be gods, it is sure that its author was a Jaina.
In Further India and in Indonesia there are besides a translation of a Tamil text of the Southern Panchtantra several simitations of the Panchatantra which, though only little is known about them, show the influence of the old Jain recension.
What has been said in the preceding lines is but a very scanty sketch. The full details will be given in my book on the Panchatantra, its history and its geographical distribution, a book which now is being printed. A somewhat more complete -account of the contents of this book will be given in English in the introduction to my text edition of the Tantrakbyayika which is now being printed at Leipzig for the Harvard Oriental Series.
Bat scanty as the above sketch is, it will be sufficient to show the reader how vast an influence Jain narrative literature had all over India. In former days it was impossible to recognise this fact as European scholars had no access to Jain libraries. But fortunately the modern Jains appear to be aware
of the advantage thay crive froin making the literary treasures Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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