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लेश्या-कोश
५२१
its genesis, reaches back to early pre-historic times when Lord Risabba, the First Tirthankara. Taught man the rudiments of human civilization, the manner to live a meaningful life, and the Ahimsite path to liberation through renunciation and spiritual uplift. The succeeding Tirthankaras, right up to parshvanatha (877-777B. C) the penultimate. and Vardhamana Mahavira (599-527 B. C) the last of them, preached the same creed for the good of all the living beings, in their own ways and respective times. Naturally, the Jains ( followers of the Jains creed ), all over the world, adore Mahavira, the Jina, as the most workshipful one.
A few years ago, the 2500th anniversary of Lord Mahavira's Nirvana was celebrated all over India, and even abroad, with befitting zeal. One salutary effect of these celebrations was that Mahavira's name received an unprecedented publicity which made people curious to know more about this great benefactor of mankind Consequently, scores of books, big and small, dealing which the life and teachings of the Lord, written by different scholars and in different languages, were published.
The present work, The Vardhaman Jivana-kosha, or a 'dictionary of Mahavira's biographical Data', is a valuable addition to modern literature on the subject. It is not actually a biography of the hero, but is a topical dictionary of the biographical details relating to Mahavira, as available in the different literary sources. For this purpose, the learned compiler and editor of this book has selected some ninty three works, including 25 canoncial texts and 31 other works of the Shvetambara tradition, 12 of the Digambara, 8 Budhist, 5 Brahmanical puranas, and 12 modern dictionaries and reference books. The details have been classified topically in the international decimal system, giving, under each topic, the information in the original with translation in Hindi and proper reference, as gleaned from different sources. Thus it is not only a unique but also a very useful and handy reference book for source material on Mahavira's life, at least so far as the Shvetambara version of the Lord's biography is concerned. Naturally, the Shvetambara sources have been almost exhaustively utilised and in places where Digambara sources have also been quoted, the differences between the two traditions have been pointed out. The learned compiler seems to have missed
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