________________
NANDISUTTAM AND ANUOGADDĪRĪNIS-Reviewed
V, M, Kulkarni
The āgamas are invaluable as religicu's silloite Jains. But, in addition, they are a valuable source for she history of religious institutions in Irdia ard a complete ricture of the composite Indian Culture. A very rich linguistic. socio-cultural and historical material lies embedded in them Neglect of these texts leaves incomplete the picture of Indian culture portrayed only on the basis of the Pali canon and Sanskrit literature. One of the reasons for their neglect hy modern scholars is the absence of a critical edition of all
Jain agamas based on modern, scientific methods of research. Such a critical edition is a desideratum. The tash of preparing it, the text of which could lay claim to finality is highly complicated and really tough. The basic stra texts of the Jain agama reveal inter-relations and cross contamination.
The Prakrit languages present dialectal variations and the MSS, in hundreds, variant readings. The Jain thaviras, when writing the sūtra, cīrni, tikā, iriti etc , extensively quote passages from the old sūtras and from their commentaries. Natural ly, one comes across almost similar or completely identical passages in hundreds pertaining to the same subject. These pass ages reveal difference in interpretation of certain words due to different traditions of interpretation. Ancient and modern
1 Nandi sutrari and Anuogaddarain (cdited by Munt Pau , Pt.
Dalsukh Malvania and Pt. Amrit'al Mohanlal Bhojak í ritlisted as Jaina-Agama-Series No. 1 by Shri Mahavir Jaina Vidyalaya, Rumbay --26, 1968, pp. 1-53 +1-70 (in Gujaratii + 1-12" (19 English + 1 - 4" ( List of Abbriviations, Tables of Contents, Tends and AppNAN) Price: Rs. 40/
