________________
XXII
KUVALAYAMALA
prabhasūri was separately issued in a limited number of copies in 1961. For reasons beyond anybody's control, the publication of this Second Part, No 46 of the Singhi Jain Series, was delayed. It includes the Introduction by the Editor, A Cultural Note on the Kuvalayamālā by the late Dr. Vasudev Sharan Agrawala, the text of the Kuvalayamālākathā of Ratnaprabha, the Gāthāsūcī, Notes by the Editor and the concordance of the printed text of the Kuvalayamālā with the two Mss., J and P, and Index etc.
The learned Introduction of Professor Upadhye is characterised by the thoroughness and meticulous scholarship, so usual with all his writings. After carefully studying both the Mss., he has evolved his discipline of text-constitution and followed it with great success. His Introduction is a substantial study of the various aspects of the Kuvalayamālā and of the personality of its gifted author. His Notes are a rich mine of information and testify to his wide reading both in Sanskrit and Prākrit literatures and of the critical studies connected with them. Dr. Upadhye has earned the gratitude of scholars interested on Indic studies by critically editing both the Prākrit and the Sanskrit works and by shedding a flood of light on them and on their authors in his scholarly Introduction and Notes. His is an all-sided study of the Kuvalayamālā. He has certainly added to the prestige of the Singhi Jain Series which has already received great praise.
My sincere thanks are due to late Dr. V. S. Agrawala who contributed to this volume a Cultural Note on the Kuvalayamālā and to my friend Dr. L. Alsdorf who kindly agreed to our request and wrote a Foreword to this publication. Dr. Alsdorf is the doyen of Prākrit and Jaina studies in Europe, a worthy successor of the late Dr. W. Schubring.
The late Shriman Bahadur Singh Singhi was a great philanthropist and a patron of learning. It is due to his munificence and nobleheartedness that the Singhi Series could achieve so much distinction in the annals of Indian learning. On the eve of my life, I look upon it as a duty to remember him with gratitude by dedicating this Volume to him. My thanks are due to both Shri Rajendra Singh Singhi and the late Shri Narendra Singh Singhi who have been upholding the great traditions of their family. I feel sorry that Shri Narendra Singhaji did not live to see the publication of the Kuvalayamālā, Part II, in which he was keenly interested.
I cannot adequately express how happy I feel in seeing this work published in such a worthy form. The same Hridevī who inspired Uddyotanasūri to compose this work has perhaps stood by Professor Upadhye who completed this edition with arduous labour and great patience. This is my humble pūrnāhuti in the cause of Indian learning.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
