________________
Review
Vardhamāna Jivan-kośa compiled by Mohanlal Banthia and Shrichand Choradia, Pub, Jaina Darshana Samiti, 16/C Dover Lane, Culcutta-29, 1980, pp. 51+584, Price Rs. 50/
The work under review is a 'dictionary of Mahāvīra's biographical data collecting and presenting pertinent quotations from Svetāmbara Āgamas and commentaries thereon, Digambara Maulika works like Kasāya. pāhuda, Svetāmbara and Digambara Purāņas, other Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa works by Jaina Ācāryas, and some Buddhist and Brahmanical works too. These quotations are lucidly translated into Hindi. Under 99 main topics these quotations are classified and arranged. Thus the work has become a veritable source book for the data of Mahāvīra's life. It would have been better if a note on the chronology of the texts utilised were prefaced and the quotations from these texts were chronologically arranged under each topic and sub-topic. Any way, the work, as it is, is a very useful and handy reference book. The compilers have put in hard labour and they rightly deserve our hearty congratulations. The publisher is also to be praised for bringing out the work with nice printing and get up and considerably low price.
Nagin J. Shab
Ludwig Alsdorf's Kleine Schriften (Minor writings). Edited by Albrecht Wezier. Glasenapp-Stiftung.-Vol. 10. Franz Steiner Verlag. Wiesbaden, 1974. XXII.762.
This is a selection of forty two papers and five book-reviews from the minor writings of the late German Indologist Ludwig Alsdorf. Broadly these essays and reviews relate to the Vedic, Buddhistic, Jainistic and Modern domains of Indian studies. Alsdorf's masterly handling of philological-historical methodi and the brilliant results thereby achieved are very well illustrated by such contributions included here as the Uttarajjha ya studies (pp. 186-192, 215-250) and the textual studies of some Jātaka tales (pp. 270-339, 344-369. 380-413) and Asokan inscriptions (pp. 414-509). Alsdorf's thorough understanding of the structure of Prakrit and Apabhramsa metres has been for him very helpful in a number of papers in spotting textual problems and offering their solutions. Here also belongs his paper relating to the identification of passages in Vedha metre from the Vasudevahimdi (pp. 167 ff.). The philological and comparative methodi is seen again yielding useful results in Alsdorf's examination of certain Jain cosmographical and mythological texts (the history of Vidyadharas and Diśākumaris, pp. 77 ff, 136 ff).
1 Effectiveness of this method for 'identifying disparate materials juxtaposed in a
single text' was very well demonstrated by Alsdorf's Beitrage Zur Geschikhte Vegetarismus und Rinderverehrung in Indien.' (1962), as has been recently observed bt Proudfoot ('Interpreting Mahābhārata Episodes as Sources for the History of Ideas', Annals, B.O.R.I., 1979, pp. 41-42).
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
