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1914.] : JAINA GAZETTE.
201 combination of three very different sources. Benfey, who used this testas:bis. principal source, arrived partly by this fact at, severat. wrong results. As in his time the Jains were regarded in Europe as a Buddha-sect, he ascribed the original Panchtantra: to a Buddha author. The book Kalilah and Dimnali' "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 test published by Kosegarten according to his opinion, was a revision of the original Buddha work, made by Brahmans, whose historical and literary conscience, he thought, 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 rery remote 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 aud in the languages, and in the popular characters of the multifarivas 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 uncultured 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 stadies, 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;
a vailable in the public libraries of India and of Europe, but Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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