________________
(18)
Recently Shri Chorarivaji has been awarded an Anuvrata Sahitya Sevi Puraskāra by the Paścima-Vanga-Anuvrata-Samiti at Delhi. as a recognition of his scholarship and devotedness to his studies on Jainism. All his košas are valuable source books on the doctrines of Jainism. His methodology is good. systematic and useful. Through his “Dictionary Project". Shri Chorariyaji has opened up a new vista of research and has set a new model for the future generations of Jainistic studies.
Pudgala simply means matter. In terms of Jainism it is defined as sparsa-rasa-gandha-varna-vantaḥ pudgalāḥ (Tattvārtha-sūtra. V. 23) "Pudgalas (material things) are characterised by touch, taste, smell, and colour." The suffix van is here used to denote permanent union". Sparsa (touch) is of eight kinds, namely, soft (snigdha), hard (ruksa), heavy (guru), light (laghu), cold (sita), hot (uşna). smooth (mşdu) and rough (karkasa). Rasa (taste) is of five kinds, namely, bitter (tikta), sour (katu), acidic (amla), sweet (madhura) and astringent kasāua). Gandha (smell) is of two kinds, namely, pleasant (sugandha) and unpleasant (durgandha). Varna (colour) is of five kinds, namely, black (kȚsna), blue (nila). red (rakta), white (sveta) and yellow (pita).
All these have many other sub-divisions and varieties; they are also connected with other objects of the world.
The whole problem of pudgala is exhaustively treated by Shri Shrichand Chorariya in his Pudgala-kosa
The Pudgala-kośa is a remarkable source book so very systematically arranged with abundant extracts and references to the original Jain works. All his košas will help scholars to compile an Encyclopaedia on Jainism. The book is highly commendable and will act as an indispensable and valuable handbook for the students of Jainism.
I do believe this Pugala-kośa will adorn the libraries of the world.
Calcutta The 9th of September 1999
Satya Ranjan Banerjee Quondam Professor of Linguistics
Calcutta University
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
