Proceedings of the Seminar on Prakrit Studies 1973

Author(s): K R Chandra, Dalsukh Malvania, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 81

9. Paramāgamasăra of Sruta Muni
Dr. Gokul Chandra Jain, Delhi.
This paper gives a brief account of a small Prakrit text named Para. māgamasāra. As far as I know, this text is not published as yet. I have requested Dr. A. N. Upadhye to include it in the Manikacandra Jaina Granthamālā.
Two paper manuscripts, perhaps both copied from one and the same older manuscript, are preserved in the Ailaka Pannalal Saraswati Bhavan, Beawar (Rajasthan). The description of these Mss. is as follows :
A. Manuscript No. 633 of the said Bhandara is a paper Ms. of Paramāgamasāra. It has eight folios of 7" x 12" each written on both sides except leaf No. 1 which is written on one side only. Each folio is numbered on one side. Its script is Devanagari. There are 12 lines on a page. Each line contains fifty-five to sixty letters:
The Ms. begins with :
371 नम : सिद्धेभ्य: । अथ श्रुतमुनिविरचितपरमागमसारे लिख्यते । घाइचउक्कविरहिया श्रीमच्छ्रतमुनिविरचितपरमागमसार : समाप्त : ।
etc. The last line reads :
इति
The date of copying the Ms. is mentioned as follows:- श्री शुभमिति श्रावण शुक्ल ९, दिन बुधवार विक्रम संवत् १९८९ को लिखकर समाप्त भयो सो सदा जयवन्त होउ । श्री शुभमस्तु । हस्ताक्षर ताराचंद जैन मुकाम महलका जिला मेरठ ।
Letters, not the writing are beautiful but the copyist did not know the Prakrit language, and as such the text is corrupt at many places.
B. Another paper Ms, preserved in the same Bhaṇḍāra, has thirty leaves each of 41" x 8" size written in Devanagari scripts. Each leaf contains twenty or twenty-two letters. It begins with:
ॐ नमः सिद्धेभ्य: । घाइचउक्कविरहिया etc. and ends with :- इति श्रुतमुनिविरचितपरमागमसार : समाप्त : । This Ms, is undated but seems to be of the same age as that of Ms. A.
One more Ms. written on palm leaves is said to be preserved in the Jaina Matha of Moodbidri, South Kanara. I have been trying to procure it. Two Mss. of the Kannada version of Paramagamasara are also preserved in the Jaina Matha, Moodbidri (K. P. T. G. S. No. 132, 133, 134).
The Paramagamasara contains two hundred and thirty Gāthās in all, out of which twenty-five, including two Sanskrit verses, have been quoted from other texts. First seven gāthās are devoted to mangalacarana or salutation to pañcaparameṣthis. Then in one gatha (no. 8) the author