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1914.] JAINA GAZETTE.
201 combination of three very different sources. Benfey, who used this text as his principal source, arrived partly by this fact at several wrong results. As in his time the Jains were regarded in Europe as a Buddha sect, he ascribed the original Panchtantra to a Buddba author. The book ‘Kalilab and Dimnah' he regarded as the faithful translation of only one work, written by one and the same author, whereas it is a collection of several different works. The text published by Kosegarten according to bis opinion, was a revision of the original Buddha work, made by Brahmans, whose historical and literary conscience, he thonght, induced them to rescue from loss this work of their adversaries by re-writing it, leaving out all the chapters which showed hostility against them and against their opinions.
The author of the present essay was deeply interested in all these questions. That in very remotė times civilisation came from Asia to Europe, this is a fact which nobody will deny, who knows something of the history. But this old story book which, at the same time, professes to be an Arth Shastram, or, a compendium of State-craft made its way from its native country to the farthest nations of the globe, not impeded by the many differences in the creeds, and in the moral views and in the languages, and in the popular characters of the multifarious nations to which it came and amongst which it came, amongst which it became for many centuries a favourite reading of the cultured as well as of the incultured classes of society. That is a most astounding fact, a fact which proves how vivid a commerce of ideas existed between the far East and the far West. And most attractive it seemed to me to study the history of this famous Duniya-nu-Shastra, as it justly can be called.
First of all, when beginning my respective studies, I saw that it was necessary to leave aside the printed editions, and to examine the various manuscripts of the original work and of its derivatives. This I did during several years, and not only did I carefully examine all the Panchatantra manuscripts,
available in the public libraries of India and of Europe, but Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
