Lilavati Sara

Author(s): Jinratnasuri, H C Bhayani, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 10

INTRODUCTION
1. The Manuscript
The present edition of the Lilavatı-sāra (LS.) of Jinaratna-sūri is based on the photo-copy of the paper MS. (the only Ms. of the work known so far) belonging to the Mss. Collection of the Kharatara Gaccha Bhandar at Jesalmer.1 The original Ms. has 267 folios, each having about eight lines per side with an average of 44 to 46 letters per line. The photo-copy belongs to the Rajasthan Pracya Vidya Pratisthan of Jodhpur. It bears the Collection nos. 112 and 124. The first and last folios of the original Ms. being somewhat damaged, some letters in the portions covered by the first 19 verses and the last 10 verses are either missing or illegible. For the rest the Ms. is in very good condition. It has been carefully copied. The copying mistakes are very few. The Ms. from which our Ms. was copied seems to have preserved the original text quite faithfully. There are very few places where we have somo doubt or uncertainty about the text.
Jiparatna's Lilavati-sära, completed in 1285 A.D., is a Sanskrit abridgement of Jinesvara-sūri's Nirvāna-lilāvai-kahā (sk. Nirvāna-lilāvati-katha) (NL.) in Prakrit. So firstly we present a short account of Jineśvara-sûri and NL. This will bo followed by an account of Jinaratna-sūri and the Lilāvati-sära
Jinesvara-sūri, the author of the Nivväņa-lilāvai
Jipeśvara-sūri was born in a Brahman family of Madhyadeśa in c. 990 A.D. After completing his education he and his younger brother went to Dhärā in Mālava and became disciples of the Jain Acārya Vardhamāna-sūri. After some time Jineśvara and his brother Buddhisāgara went to Anahilla, pura in Gujarat. There the Jain monks used to stay in temples and as such came to be called Cait yavāsin. This practice caused considerable lowering of the norms of monastic conduct. Jineśvara-sūri successfully carried out a reform in this way of monastic life and became the founder of Vasati vāsa i.e the practice of staying in special residences set up by laymen for
1. For the description of the Ms. see The catalogue of Sanskrit and
Prakrit Manuscripts-Jesalmer Collection compiled by Muni Shri Punya. vijayaji (L.D. Sesies No. 36, 1972), p. 151, entry no 151.