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JASAHARACARIU
Of a very special interest are the Jain works written in what is called the Western Apabhramsa. This language is the immediate forerunner of at least three important vernaculars, Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi. All the works in this language that have so far come to light are the productions of the Jains. Till very recently, not a single complete work of this language was available in print, on account of which the study of history and philology of the modern vernaculars could not make any appreciable progress. It was only in the year 1918 that the first complete and systematically edited work of this language appeared. This was the Jain work Bhavisayatta-kaha of Dhanapala edited by Professor Hermann Jacobi of the University of Bonn. This same work was again published in the Gaekwad Oriental Series in 1923. This was all and nothing definite or much was known about the other works of this language till I had the occasion in 1924 of examining the Jain manuscript stores at Karanja in the Akola district of Berar, being deputed to that task by my learned patron and benefactor Rai Bahadur Hiralal, B. A., M. R. A. S., Deputy Commissioner who, in his retirement, was entrusted by the Government with the work of compiling a Catalogue of Sanskrit MSS. in the Central Provinces and Berar. Here I discovered a dozen works in Apabhramsa, including three Puranas of more than one hundred chapters each, the other works being of a more modest size. Information about these works will be found embodied in the Catalogue mentioned above which was published in 1926.
It is a great pity that a very large part of the Jain literature of which I have spoken so far, remains yet unpublished. A few Granthamālās have recently been started with the chief object of making these works available to the scholarly world in the original, and the Manikchand Digambara Jain Granthamālā of Bombay deserves special mention in this connection. It has so far issued thirty volumes containing about fifty ancient Sanskrit and Prakrit works. The work is however, too vast to be adequately handled in a single series and hence the need of fresh efforts to speed up the work of publication.
Two years ago, Seth Gopal Ambadas Chaware of Karanja sought my advice in the matter of utilising certain funds which he had set apart for some religious or charitable purpose in the memory of his late father. I suggested to him that the best and most lasting memorial that he could raise to his father and at the same time do a great service to the cause of Jainism was the institution of a book-series for the publication of Jain works that remain yet unpublished, particularly those from MSS. deposited at his own place, Karanja. This suggestion of mine was discussed at a meeting of the leading Jains of Berar and was ultimately adopted in preference to other suggestions put forward for the utilisation of the funds. A committee was formed for starting the work of the series to be known as Ambadās Chaware Digambara Jain Granthamālā or KARANJA JAIN SERIES of which I was elected General Editor.
We had decided to open the Series with one of the Apabhramśa works recovered from the Karanja MSS. when Dr. P. L. Vaidya, M. A., D. Litt., sought my help in obtaining facilities for consulting some of those MSS. I learnt from him that he had already secured some MSS. of the Jasaharacariu of Puspadanta and was engaged in preparing the text for the Press. I told him about our Series and offered to open the Series with that work if he would edit it for us. To this Dr. Vaidya readily
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