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JAINA GAZETTE.
[June & July
is work.
as they were current in his days amongst the population of Northern Gujarat through oral tradition, a fact, of course, whicń greatly enhances the value of his work.
Two other manuscripts of the Deccan College Library, No. 424 of 1879-80, and No. 289 of 1882-3, contain the Panchakhyana of a Jain scholar Yashodhira (not Yashodhara, as the catalogue wrongly calls him). This is a translation of a combination of the 'textus simplicior' with Puranbhadra's text. The language of this translation is Old Gujarati, its form is prose, and its style is much better than that of the Panchakhyan. In several passages Yashodhira even used the old Kashmir recension, i. e., the Yantrakhyika.
Two manuscripts of the Deccan College (Nos. 31 of 1898-9 and 288 of 1882-3), one of the Calcatta Library, and one lent to me by a Jaina friend, contain a third version in old Gujarati. Its author is the Jaina monk Ratansundra, pupil of Gunmeru. This work is written in verse, in Chaupai and in Doha stanzas ; its title is Katha Kallal. Ratnasandra, whose name is given in the Calcutta manuscript only, belonged to the Purnama paksh Gachha, and composed liis work in Sammat 1622 at Sanand, a town situated in Gujarat, near, and West of Ahmedabad. He tells us that he wrote his composition through the grace of
.his Guru
گرو پرشاد حج مين کھيتها حلول بنائے چوپئي
We therefore can state here the interesting fact of a school of poets, Jaina monks, who cultirated poetry in their own Vernacular. The Calcutta manuscript contains a revised and enlarged text, apparently by some papil of Ratansundra's. The prashasta of the Calcutta manuscript highly praises Ratansandra, whereas that of the shorter recension contained in the other manuscripts shows so much modesty that it not even gives his name, but only calls him Sri Gunmeru Soor Shishya. 'pupil of the celebrated Suri Gudmero.'
Ratansandara, on the whole, followed the 'textus simplicior," adding two stories which we shall find again in Bachhraja and Meghavijaya's texts. The longer recension contained in the
Calcutta Manuscript adds three more stories which are well known Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
