Jinratnakosha Part 1

Author(s): Hari Damodar Velankar
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

Page 7

PREFACE
WHILE I was preparing the Descriptiva Catalogue of the Mss. of the B.B. R. A. S., Bombay, I found that the then available information about the extent and nature of Jain Literature was rather megre. So, I decided to compile a Catalogue Catalogorum on the lines of Aufrecht's great work. I actually began my work in the month of December, 1923 and succeeded in acquiring reliable lists of Mss. preserved in the various Jain Bhandars throughout India. The lists of the Svetāmbara Bhandars were obtained by me through many of my friends, prominently among whom must be mentioned the late Mr. K. P. Modi, Advocate of Ahmedabad, Shri Indravijaya Suri Maharaj of Shivpuri, Gwalior, Mr. M. D. Desai, Advocate of Bombay, Dr. T. L. Shah, of Baroda, and Mr. K. H. Javeri, Cloth Merchant of Bombay. On the other hand, I got the lists of the Digambara Bhandars from the Ailak Pannalal Digambara Jain Sarasvati Bhuvan at Bhuleshvar, Bombay ; but very often Pandit Nathuram Premi, the Jain Bookseller and Publisher of Hirabag, Bombay, helped me materially in securing lists and also in various other ways. I take this oppertunity of expressing my deep gratitude to all these gentlemen and institutions.
I was unable to visit and personally inspect the Jain Bhandars in Gujrat and Central India in spite of the very noble offer of help made to me by the Jain Svetāmbara conference of Bombay, for various reasons which include those of health and circumstances. As regards the Digambara Bhandars, a visit to these by a NonJain is still out of question. It is therefore, not impossible that a number of statements made in this Kośa may be found inaccurate. I do not disown responsibility in all such cases and in all humility apologize to the reader for the inconvenience and mental uneasiness which may be caused to him ; for, I am fully conscious that my own ignorance and negligence might have been as much responsible for this state of affairs as the inaccurate statements existing in the lists themselves.
Unlike Aufrecht, I am listing the works and the authors separately. Thus in this First Volume of the Jinaratnakośa, a list of Jain works alone will be found ; while, I propose to give the list of the authors in the Second Volume. I have purposely restricted myself to Jain works written in the Sanskrit and the Prakrit languages including the Apabhramśa, though I have 'occasionally mentioned some old Gujrati commentaries and works.
Jain Literature is written in at least three different provincial languages, namely, Gujrati, Hindi, and Kannada. Of these, the works composed by the Jain poets in Gujrati are listed, described, and illustrated admirably by Mr. M. D. Desai, Advocate, Bombay in the two volumes of his .Jaina Gurjara k'avio', 1925, and 1931. A similar attempt is made by R. Narasimhācārya in his Karnatakakavicarite, Vols. I to III, Bangalore, 1924 etc. This latter work is of course conceived on a different plan ; in it greater importance is attached to the poets than to their works, so that the manuscripts of the works are rarely mentioned, if at all. In the case of Jain
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