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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
lived at Anandapura, Uața himself lived in Mâlvâ at the time when he wrote his work. The Bhoja therefore mentioned by him must undoubtedly be the celebrated prince of that name who ruled over the country from about 996 to 1051 A. D. (See A., Appendix II.)
Upanishads.
No. 487 is entitled Ashtottaraśatopanishad or the hundred and eight Upanishads. The original Upanishads formed parts of the Vedas and these are really works of great antiquity; but treatises of this nature gradually multiplied, many of them being devoted to the exaltation of particular deities and to the furtherance of such other sectarian objects. Most of them are referred to the Atharva Veda, a circumstance partially due to the fact that the literature belonging to this Veda was not clearly defined and specified by the ancient scholars of India. The number of Upanishads extant is now estimated at about 250. But at some period which cannot be very distant, 108 of these were chosen as the best and their names given in one of them entitled Muktikopanishad and their study enjoined. The Upanishads in our No. 487 are the same as those mentioned in the Muktikopanishad and are written and arranged exactly in the same order. But out of the 108, twothe Taittirîya and the Mantrika-have dropped out somehow, though their names are given in the table of contents attached to the manuscript. No. 10 in the Gujarat section also contains thirty-six treatises of this class and some of them are different from those enumerated in the Muktikopanishad. Lists of the Upanishads occurring in these two manuscripts are given in Appendix II. (See B). Besides these we have detached copies of several of them. It is not often that so many Upanishads are found in a single collection of manuscripts.
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