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Translation of Hermann Jacobi's review of Schubring's 1910 Acārânga edition
249
Appendix 3
Schubring's 1910 edition of the Acārânga-Sütra is briefly reviewed by H. Jacobi in his "Der Jainismus", Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, vol. 18, 1915, pp. 269–286. Here the translation of the concerned pages 283–285. (Schubring's text and analysis are supplied in Appendix 1.)
I proceed now to the editions of Jaina texts edited or revised by European scholars. Among these Dr Walther Schubring's new critical edition of the first part (Śrutaskandha) of the Ācārānga Sūtra takes an outstanding place in which he, apart from ample manuscript material, also carefully takes the Cūrni and the Tīkā into consideration (Schubring 1910). However, (preparing) the text edition is not the only purpose, nor the chief merit of the editor. Apart from this Schubring wants to show the various parts out of which he thinks the text is compiled in the form of a mosaic, as also (284) to demonstrate the manner and method of their being joined together.
Already in my [own] edition of the text in the Pali Text Society, 1882, I had highlighted in the print numerous metrical fragments in the prose (parts of the) text. Schubring now goes significantly further in the indication of such fragments, often with doubtless justification, but also frequently in places where one can hardly suppose that they stem from a corrupted verse—something which he himself does not deny. He thereby can distinguish three kinds of texts: those in the prose, sloka and triştubh styles, depending on whether the concerned) place is purely in prose, or mixed with śloka or triştubh fragments. Now, within the same kind of text Schubring thinks that he finds a connection of ideas, and partly also a similarity of expression, out of which their correlation would follow. Despite the keen perception employed unto them, and many a correct observation, the whole still has little persuasive power. Much less intelligible is Schubring's explanation of the origin of this text mosaic.
In his opinion the verse fragments are not, as I had assumed, interwoven into the text by the author (in a way similar, say, to a pastor well-versed in the Bible might amply mix his sermon with Biblical phrases and expressions), rather the opposite: the "metrical components make up the skeleton of our verse style. Popular series of stanzas were at the basis of these explanatory and interpretive addresses” (p. 52) [p. 229 above]. One could perhaps think that stanzas of pregnant content might have been used in this way; but fragments of verses, and that too, often after abandoning their proper form--for this there is no analogy at all in India. Even
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