Outline of Avasyaka Literature

Author(s): Ernst Leumann, George Baumann
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 11

Introductory essay and tools by Nalini Balbir
Introductory essay
Ernst Leumann (1859-1931) belongs to a category of Indologists who could be termed "outsiders". His name is known to many, his reputation is very high, but, in fact, little of his work is really known or used by subsequent generations of scholars in spite of its extreme importance. Novelty, multi-angle approach, creative and concise presentations are responsible for this. One of the reasons may be that the two fields in which E. Leumann especially shone were not considered central to Indology: Jaina studies and Khotanese studies. On the other hand, the fact that he selected precisely these two branches is certainly not the result of chance: more than anything else Leumann is a pioneer, a path-breaker, who seems to have had a particular taste for new discoveries, new texts, new languages, new tracks, and new types of work. His misfortune was that, especially in the field of Jainism, he had the right ideas ahead of his time, when most scholars were not yet prepared to listen to him. This is shown by the small number of reviews of his books and by the somewhat embarrassed attitude and mixed feelings that the reviewers show towards achievements they consider both great and difficult to understand. Another reason may be his very special way of working: driven by boundless curiosity and enormous insight he often arrives at the heart of the question but neglects to indicate its preliminary steps. Like his disciple Walther Schubring (1882-1969), he would probably have mocked the modern fashion of having endless bibliographies with endless references to one's own works. Consequently, Leumann's writings are not always easy to read because their
This introduction owes a lot to Klaus Bruhn's essay modestly entitled "Bibliography of Studies Connected with the Avaśyaka-Commentaries" in Plutat 1998: 119-136, and will quote several of its adequately formulated statements. I also make free use of information collected in my Introduction to Leumann's Kleine Schriften (1998). - ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS : I am thankful to Dr. Peter SKILLING for reading through this text and improving its style, to Dr. George BAUMANN for the same and for having proposed adequate translations of the German reviews of Leumann's Übersicht (Appendix VII), to Dr. Peter FLÜGEL for having procured a photograph of Jinavijaya's article (Appendix IX) appropriate for reproduction (mine was not good), to Jérôme PETIT (PhD candidate, University of Paris-3 and Head of collections at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) and to Laurent GARRIGUES (EPHE) for their readiness to help in technical matters. Any shortcoming is of course mine. - Dr. Baumann and myself are grateful to Dr. M.A. DHAKY and Dr. J.B. SHAH (L.D. Institute, Ahmedabad) for being willing to publish our work. We consider it as an honour. We both benefited in various ways from the Ahmedabad scholarly tradition and hospitality over many years. ? See Appendix VIII for biographic and bibliographic information relating to Leumann's works (which are referred here only by the date of publication).
See, for instance, the observations of French scholar Auguste Barth (1834-1916), who, however, at least never failed to mention Leumann's works on Jainism in his bibliographical chronicles : see Euvres, vol. 1, Paris, 1914, pp. 393-395 (about Leumann's edition of the Aupapātika-sūtra and about "Die alten Berichte von den Schismen der Jaina"); vol. 2, Paris, 1914, pp. 71-72 (brief comment on the important paper "Beziehungen der Jaina-Literatur zu anderen Literaturkreisen Indiens"), pp. 194-195 (about the monograph on the Daśavaikälika-sūtra and Leumann's studies about the legend of Citta and Sambhūta): "... (ce travail) témoigne d'une connaissance intime de cette littérature que M. Leumann est probablement seul à posséder. Mais je doute qu'il paraisse suffisant même au spécialiste, qui regrettera peut-être d'avoir à s'assimiler tant de matière brute. Je doute surtout qu'il soit aussi clair qu'il est savant, et qu'on puisse le consulter à quelques mois d'intervalle sans avoir à le relire d'un bout à l'autre. Les mêmes qualités, mais aussi, en partie du moins, les mêmes défauts, se retrouvent dans une autre publication, où M. Leumann, continuant ses études comparatives sur les légendes hindoues, suit un de ces récits, celui de Citta et de Sambhūta ..." (p. 195), p. 381 (about the edition of the AvasyakaErzählungen), p. 396 (about the article "Die Bharata-Sage").