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लेश्या-कोश
many centuries. By this time, Mahavira had become a cult, to be accepted with devotion, and not to be questioned in any way, except for committing an act of sacrilege. Since the compiler has made use of the Digambara Puranas from which the present review er rendered into English about 400 slokas covering the Mahavira episode, he can say with authority that the Digambara source is much posterior and much less authentic than the Sveta mbara ones.
The story of Vardhamana Mahavira, as it has figured in the compilation, is not already unknown to the readers of vernaeular texts, but this is the first time that it has appeared in Janguages, Prakrit and Sanskrit, in which the Agamic texts wore written and 10 that extent the compilation should be immensely inspiring to the readers as well as researebers. Objection has been raised by Pi. Dalsukh Malvapia whieh has been printed in the book that the gleanings do not follow the accepted order of priority of the souree material but the reviewer very much doubts if that would have made a hell of a difference, ihe convenience of the compiler being the most helpful licence in this regard. Dr. Jyoti Prasad Jain draws attention about a missing link on the basis of Jinasena Suri's work regarding the names of Mahavira's grand parents, which the compiler has not noticed, but cven here it may be questioned how far the geneology need be stretched beyond the parents who are the most important persons in bringing us to life. If a more exhaustive geneology could be given, very fine, if not, no harm, so long as we know the tree of which one is the fruit. Between Svetambara 'Inata’ and Digambara 'Natha', again, Mahavira's clan, the difference is not as wide as that between heaven and hell and need be overlooked.
The reviewer would, however, fail in his duty if he does not record his disappointment over the fact that not a single biographical sketch of Mahavira, including the present compilation, highlights Mahavira as an Idea, the subjective, as distinguished from the supernatural Mahavira which would bave been more imporrant. The reviewer thinks that the material for this part of the story, at least from the Svetambara sources, is much earlier, more authentic and more copious than any other, the innumerable dialogues between Mahavira and Gautama on diverse, themes, mythological, scientific and socio-political, a lot of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology and
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