Laghutattvasphota

Author(s): Amrutchandracharya, Padmanabh S Jaini, Dalsukh Malvania, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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INTRODUCTION
Significant Discovery:
The palm-leaf manuscript of the Laghutattvasphota was found in 1968 by Munishri Punyavijayaji in the Dela Bhandara, Ahmedabad. The discovery a MS of this totally unknown work by the celebrated Digambara Amftacandra Sūri was hailed as a great event by the entire Jaina community. Its being found in a Svetāmbara Bhandara by a Svetāmbara Muni provided even greater significance, reminding the Jainas, on the eve of the 2500th anniversary of Lord Mahāvira's nirvāṇa, of the essential unity underlying their Sectarian traditions. When I heard the good news of this discovery I wrote to the Late Munishri begging him to allow me to work on this unpublished text; most magnanimously, he not only dispatched photographs of the original but even a copy which had been made under his supervision. In presenting this Sanskrit edition and English translation of the work, I hope to have at least partialy fulfilled the task which he entrusted to me.
Description of the MS :
The MS is complete and consists of 53 folios with five (and sometimes six) lines on each side. Folio No. 35 also bears the number 36; this is probably corrected subsequently by the use of No. 49 twice as 'prathama' and 'dvitiya', The scribe often appears to confuse the dental and palatals. Otherwise there are few errors in the MS; we have indicated our emendations by round brackets. The colophon has no date, nor does it give the name or place of the scribe. Munishri Punyavijayaji's copy indicates that he would place the MS in the middle of the 15th century A.D.
Autborship:
The colophon states that the Laghutattvasphota is the work of Amstacandra Sūrii The name Amstacandra occurs twice in the body of the text: once at the end of the first chapter (verse 25) and again in one of the concluding verses (625), where the title “kavindra' is also applied to the author. Although the Laghutattvasphoța does not refer to any other work, two of its verses, Nos. 507 and 624, are identical with verses 270 and 141, respectively, of Samayasära-kalaśa, which is part of Amộtacandra Sūri's Ātmakhyāti-fikā, a famous prose commentary on the Samayasäral of Kundakunda. There are