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THE JAINA GAZETTE as yet. There is a Hindi Commentary by Pande Hemaraja (about the middle of the seventeenth century) mainly based on that of Amritachandra (published in the above edition). It is really a credit to the Jaina Hindi literature that there is, in Hindi, à metrical version of Pravachanasara by Vrindavana (first quarter of the 19th century). Brahmachari Sitalaprasadaji has written a lucid commentary in easy Hindi mainly besed on the commentary of Jayasena. It is a practial edition in three handy volumes. Thus we see what a huge mass of literature has grown only about Pravachanasara, not to mention other works of Kundakunda.*
Without a critical text the study of Pravachanasara will always remain imperfect. All philological conclusions must remain tentative until a critical text is built up based on many Mss.
In the following paragraphs I have attempted to give a consistent summary of Pravachanasara. Generally I have confined myself to the contents of the text even though on many occasions I have incorporated, in the summary, some of the suggestions of the commentators.i]
BOOK I The unruffled equanimity of the soul is Dharma itself. When the soul has developed Dharma, maintenance of its pure and essential consciousness is Charitra which when accompanied by Right Faith and Knowledge leads one to Liberation.
The very existence of a substance implies its having been endowed with qualities and modificatory developments. The soul develops itself with auspicious or inauspicious or pure modifications. The inauspicious modificatory manifestation leads the soul into wretched births, the auspicious one to happy births, while the pure on leads it to liberation where super
• I remember to have read somewhere that an English translation of Pravachanasara is being printed by the Jaina Literature Society London.
A complote English translation of Pravachana sara is ready with the writer. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
