________________
FOREWORD
It gives me great pleasure in writing a Foreword to a book Pudgala-kasa by name written by Shri Shrichand Ch who is already an author of several kośas like the present one. Shri Chorarivaji is a good scholar on Jainism. He has already shown his scholarship by publishing the Leśyā-kośa. Kriya-kośa Vardhamāna-Jivana-kośa (in three parts). Yoga-kośa (in two parts), and the present one-the Pudgala-kośa. He has also prepared Dhyāna-kośa and also a Paribhāsa-kośa (otherwise known as Samyukta-Leśyā-kosa). His Mithyātvi kā Ādhyātmika Vikāśa is an outstanding philosophical text which describes the manifestation of soul according to the Jain tradition. This treatise shows the masterly contribution of Chorariyaji to the subject.
The plan of all his Cyclopaedias is a unique one. The method followed in preparing all the cyclopaedias is the classification of International Decimal System used in the libraries of the world. Each decimal point is arranged topic-wise. In each section and under each topic one decimal point is given; e.g.,
.00 Sabda-vivecana
.01 Šabda-vyutpatti .01.1 prāksta mē poggala śabda ki vyutpatti (Then follows the description of the subject).
The description of each item (divided into thousand points) is followed by the original quotations collected from over books. All the original quotations from the Jaina texts, both canonical and non-canonicall, are followed by Hindi translations. It goes without saying that to collect all these quotations in one place is a huge task, and for this Shri Chorariyaji is to be congratulated.
Shri Chorariyaji has been working on Jainism for a long time. He is a good scholar and is always devoted to his Jain Cyclopaedias. He spends most of his time in compiling material for his kośas. He gives a special care for the better production of his work. As far as I know, all his cyclopaedias are received well by the scholarly world.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
