Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

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INTRODUCTION
The present monograph under the caption Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica is being published by the Asiatic Society on the occasion of a National Seminar on Prakrit and Jainism organised by the Asiatic Society to be held on the 11th and 12th of March 2005. It is a historic event in the annals of the Society that it is for the first time the said Society is holding a National Seminar on Jainism. Though in the history of the Asiatic Society, Jainism was not at all unknown, because many articles and papers on Jainism were published in the Asiatick Researches and also in its Journal fro:n its very inception, along with texts on Jaina Āgamas, there was no occasion when a Jain Seminar was ever contemplated. It is, therefore, quite in the fitness of things that after a lapse of 222 years, the present Council, particularly the President, Professor Biswanath Banerjee, thought it prudent to hold a national Seminar on Jainism-a subject which has been living in the realm of sad and doleful neglect for centuries more in the eastern part of India. As far as history is concerned, it should be borne in mind that Bengal was a champion of Jainism from her hoary antiquity. It is a fact worth noting that 2600 years ago, Vardhamān Mahāvīra came to Bengal (Vanga), known as Rādha (or Lāța)deśa at that time, to preach his doctrine, and this event was recorded in the second part of the Acārängasūtra which is one of the oldest Āgama texts of the Jains. And some of the historians opine that the name of the Railway station Bardhaman (formerly English Burdwan, but correctly Vardhamāna) in West Bengal is due to his visit to that place. However, it is not the place to dilate upon the history of Jainism in Bengal, but, it could be reckoned at the same time that Bengal was not a place where Jainism was quite unknown. But rather unfortunately, Jainism in Bengal was for long relegated to the land of oblivion in the contemplation of a polypus.
Keeping in mind the thrust areas of this Seminar which include the Prakrit language, literature and Jain philosophy, a monograph which is a collection of articles is prepared according to the need of the Seminar. It has three parts. In