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MAHAPURANA
of supplying the gloss at the bottom of the page will be appreciated by the reader as it taxes him less, and helps me to reduce the volume of notes. It should be noted that I have not retouched the text of the gloss, but have retained it as it was found in Mss. even though I felt at times tempted to improve upon uncouth Prakritisms or unwarranted historical allusions ( for example, the gloss on a fafgue on page 8).
see
28
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF OBLIGATIONS
It now remains for me to perform the pleasant duty of thanking all those who, one way or another, assisted me in the production of the present volume, I must thank in the first place the Trustees and the Secretaries of the Manikchand Digambara Jaina Granthamala who were kind enough to find the necessary fund for the preparation and publication of this volume, and I feel sure they will also find the necessary funds to complets the work. The poetic genius of Puspadanta required the benevolent encouragement of his patron Bharata in the 10th century. After the plunder of Manyakheta in 972 A. D. the poet became desolate and remained uncared for about a thousand years, and had it not been for the help that the Trustees of the Series offered to the Elitor, his efforts to bring the poet out of oblivion would have been of no avail. The spirit of Puspadanta will thus take a special delight in having once more discovered the spirit of his former patron regenerated in the Trustees of the Series, The Editor hopes that the same spirit will find a few thousand rupees more to enable him to complete the task that he has undertaken to rescue from oblivion this monumental work of the Poet.
To Professor Hiralal Jain of King Edward College, Amraoti, I owe a special debt of gratitude. He moved heaven and earth to find the funds for this publication. He has helped me in various other ways, in securing the loan of Mss. from Karanja and Jaipore, and in sending me bits of information that he came across. To Pandit Nathuram Premi, the veteran savant of Jain literature and an adventurous publisher of Jain works, I also tender my heartfelt thanks.
I would like to record here my sense of high appreciation of the services which Mr. R. G. Marathe, M. A., formerly my pupil and now professor of Ardha-Magadht at the Willingdon College, Sangli, rendered me in the preparation of this work. He did a lot of copying work for me and helped me at the time of collation as well.
Nowrosjee Wadia College, Poona
August 1937
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