Outline of Avasyaka Literature

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

Page 89

English translation by George Baumann
Preface
[IR] Jainism, or the Jaina religion, founded by ‘Jina' or 'Mahāvīra', an elder contemporary of Buddha, is evidence, just as Buddhism is, of a reform movement that turned against the sacrificial cult of the Brahmins in the 6th or 5th century B.C. Both religions, Jainism as well as Buddhism, have bequeathed a large number of writings. Within Jaina literature the part dealing with the Āvaśyaka that we have summarized and designated as Avaśyaka literature, comprises a large part. It is, so to speak, the Lord's Prayer of the Jains. In all periods of their religious history it has been handed down, enlarged, changed, commented on and associated with legends or similar literary writings of the most varied types. In this way the history of Āvaśyaka literature thus becomes a paradigmatic extract of the entire Jaina literary history. Therefore, we hope through this historically arranged outline of Avaśyaka literature, and even more so as it touches related subjects, we can offer something not only to scholars working on Indian religions, but also to those dealing with Indian literary history.
Our work is based only on manuscripts. Firstly, the majority of them had to be bought or borrowed from India. There, the manuscripts, as well as the works they contain, were given no or only superficial scrutiny by a specialist on the subject. The same is partially the case even with the Berlin manuscripts, which we shall discuss. Until the present time the London manuscripts made use of were almost untouched. The same is true of the manuscripts that Bombay, Calcutta, Oxford, Cambridge, Vienna, Florence and Göttingen were able to contribute for this research.
In general, only a few preparatory studies can be mentioned. The author is all the more aware about what he indirectly owes to a whole series of works, particularly, and foremost, the outline of the Jaina Canon and the second catalogue by Weber, then the treatises and the publications by Jacobi that have very important introductions, the chronologized collections by Klatt, the inscriptional inquiries and the biography of Hemacandra by Bühler and lastly, the contributions from India by Gopal Bhandarkar, Shridhar Bhandarkar (in Gopal Bhandarkar's extensive report), by Pathak and Hoernle. I am also very thankful to be able to mention those scholars who, for the first time, have introduced the consulted as well as related manuscripts to the sphere of research. These are Bühler, Kielhorn, Jacobi, Peterson (whose untimely death is painful, not only for Jaina philology), Gopal Bhandarkar, Rājendralāla Mitra, Bendall and Hultzsch. The Strassburg Library and I, myself, are most thankful to the latter, because his friendly help made it possible for us to acquire a large number of Digambara manuscripts from Brahmasuri and his son Jinadāsa. Whatever other Jaina manuscripts we have in Strassburg we owe to the expert mediation of Bhagwandas Kevaldas. The necessary funds for the double acquisition were taken, for the greater part, from the interest on capital of a foundation, for which our university owes thanks to the generosity of Max Müller.
I am also very thankful to the Berliner Akademie, which granted me, once, the complete and another time, half of the proceeds of the Bopp-Stiftung. Among other things, in the autumn of 1893 this permitted me to carry out a long period of study in Berlin where a large number of new Jaina manuscripts have arrived since the completion of Weber's second catalogue.
WZ. I 165. II 141. III 233. IV 313. V 59. 175. We are particularly pleased with Pathak's research. Through his subtle learnedness important literary historical results from hidden quotations and allusions have become evident. Also this man who, for many years, effectively supported, first, Bühler and, then, Peterson in the expansion of Indian studies through the Search for Sanskrit manuscripts, has now - unexpectedly early - been taken away by death (on March 13, 1900).
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