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PREFACE
The study of Jainism was started sometime in the early part of the 19th c. Though the study of Jainism was not as such started with the Jaina agama texts, the early part was more or less connected with the general studies of Jainism without any particular reference to any Jaina āgama texts. In fact, the word Prakrit was known to the European world from 1789 when Sir William Jones' translation of Sakuntalā appeared with a caption on the title page 'translated from the original Sanskrit and Prakrit'. Though the word Prakrit was used in the last decade of the 18th e., Europe did not know any facts about Prakrit before 1801 when Colebrooke's article on the Prakrit language came out. It was Colebrooke who, for the first time, as far as we know, focused some aspects of Prakrit. Though some of his statements, we may now find something queer, at that time it roused the feelings of scholars about Prakrit. His next article on Prakrit Poetry appeared in 1808, where his main focus was on Gathāsaptasati, Setubandha, Gaudavaha and some other similar Prakrit Poetry. In 1832 Colebrook's Sketch of the Religious sects of the Hindus (cf. his Eassys, Vol. I p. 280f) appeared, where the Jain sects were also discussed. However, after a long time, Rev. J. Stevenson's translation of the Kalpasūtra along with the Navatattva (nine principles of Jainism) appeared in 1848. After a few years, Weber's fragments of the Bhagavatīsūtra came out in 1865-66 and the text was so beautifully edited that it evoked inspiration of the scholarly world. It was at that time Weber was also working on the Jaina manuscripts preserved in the library of the Royal Academy. The Jaina agama texts were preserved there and Weber started thoroughly scrutinising the manuscripts and prepared a descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts of the Royal Academy. The outcome of his labour was the Sacred Literature of the Jains. Originally the Sacred Literature of the Jains was published in German under the title Über die heiligan Schriften der Jainas in his Indische Studien, Vol. 16 (1883) pp. 211-479 and Vol. 17 (1885), pp. 1-90 containing about 358 pages of double demise size. The whole book was translated into English by H.W. Smyth in the Indian Antiquary from Vols. XVII upto XXI, 1888-1892; i.e. XVII (279-292, 339-345), XVIII (181-184, 369-378), XIX (62-70), XX (18-29, 174-182, 365-376), XXI (14-23, 106113, 177-185, 210-215, 327-341, 369-373). The basis of Weber's writing the history of the Jains was Georg Bühler's collection of the Jaina manuscripts. Georg Bühler was the first man who opened up the rich treasures of the Jaina libraries. In the years 1873-1878 Bühler acquired
