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and rigorous critical faculties have enabled him to cope singlehanded with a problem of vast' magnitude in the domain of Prākrit text criticism." In fact, the work of the Präkrit Text Society was begun by Muñi Sri Punyavijayaji. . He had ably edited, in collaboration with his Guru, the latc Muni Śrī Chaturavijayaji, several Prākrit texts of abiding interest and importance like the Vasudeva-Hindi and Brhat Kalpa Sūtra, and it was he who had formed, about fiftcen years back, Jināgama Prakāśini Samsad (Society for the publication of Jaina Canon') at Patan, the ancient Capital of Gujarāt famous for its manuscript-librarics. It was under the auspices of this body as well as that of the Jaina Śvetāmbara Conference of Bombay that he and his assistants spent about two years at the border-town of Jaisalmer in. Rājasthān, 'cqually famous for its manuscripts, in the extremely unsettled conditions immediately following the partition of India. . There he collected vast material, compared and collated manuscripts and microfilmed all the important documents. One can appreciate his patience and perseverance only when one is awarc of the fact that as a Jaina monk, he had to walk down all these distances, and that too, barc-footed. We trust that liberal financial help will be provided by the Government, public bodies and philanthrophists and we are sure that under the able and inspiring leadership as jell as very active participation of Muni Śrī Punyavijayaji the Sociсty will achieve its cherished goal of a uniform critical cdition of the whole Canon. The first edition under the auspices of this Society, viz., Argavijja, a very interesting work on
omens and augury, was published in 1957, and my predecessor, ✓ Mr. Malvania, had briefly noticed it. Verily, it is a liappy
augury for the Society to bring out a very systematic cdition of such a difficult and voluminous work as their first publication. ...There are other indications also of the recognition of the incrcasing importance of Prākrit sludics. The Government of the State of Bihar, roughly covering the land of ancient Magadha,:, wherc ,Buddha and Malāvira preached and which
