Jaina Karmaology

Author(s): N L Jain
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 35

30
traditional descriptions about the physical world. It is this point which needs active attention. The presentation of Svetambara literature stands better in this regard by now. The Digambaras should also take up the cause to let the world know about their early scholarship in elucidating che physical world through their literature.
Though it is heartening to learn that a good number of Digambara basic texts of Prakrta and Sanskrta have been translated into English by the eminent people like J.L. Jaini, C.R. Jain, A.P. Jain, A.N.Upadhye, S.A.Jain, G.R. Jain and others beginning from the third decade and after in this century but this literature involves mostly the primary texts. The Digambara literature has a large volume of secondary texts in terms of short or long commentaries on these texts covering a period of middle ages beginning from the fifth century onwards. These texts not only present the philosophical and logical background for the Jaina concepts contained in the basic texts but they also represent the developmental stage about them in their respective periods. They are, thus, historically important too for evaluating the eastern scholarship properly. Only rare cases have come up in English.
The 'Tattvārtha Sūtra' has been the most popular basic text in this regard. It has many commentaries in Sansksta as already stated. It is fortunate to know that almost all important commentaries have been translated in Hindi. However, it is only the earliest Digambara commentary by Pūjyapada which has been translated in English by S.A. Jain under the title “Reality' (1960). In addition, G.R. Jaina has a modern commentary on its fifth chapter alone under the title of 'Cosmology,Old and New' (1942). However, the other advanced commentaries based on this remain unexplored in this regard. The Akalanka commentary ‘Rajvārtika' is one of them though its Hindi translation (in fact, summary) appeared in 1953-57. It has manifold importance. It was, therefore, thought proper to translate it into English, However, the treatise is too large for full translation in one-go. Accordingly, it was considered to be taken up in stages. In view of my personal background, my interest got concentrated first on chapter 2 and 5 as they contained normally all the Jaina postulates of Biological and Physical sciences. Accordingly, I submitted a proposal to the authorities of INSA, Delhi for sponsorship and assistance as they have been encouraging such activities since 1961. It was fortunately accepted in 1993. However, the work involved not only translation but critical notes also on the basis of other commentaries and current trends. These