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SAMBODHI sources. The editor has given a clue to the source of inspiration for this title; it is a tale of a clever woman who outwits both her husband and the divine being who tests her chastity. Though the definite story has not been pointed out it most probably seems to be No. 17, on pp. 56-57, in which Priyangu, the wife of the minister Dharmghosa seems to have been referred to by the editor who has indicated "a tale of a clever woman who outwits both her husband and the diving being who tests her chastity."
Jaina story literature as a whole is characterized by a plurality of styles and a freedom of invention that surely contributed to its lasting appeal. Some stories read like simple folk-tales, others read more like the bare framework for a sermon while still others seem more like courtly romances. In the original each of the stories that are translated in this collection has an unmistakable and unique stamp. Although they all appear here in English, these stories in the original are not even in the same language. A single story may even be in more than one language, for it is not unusual for the stories to switch from one language to another, using Sanskrit and Prakrit side by side. Some of the stories that appear here were written entirely in prose, while others were in verse or in mixed prose and verse. The stories have been translated by several scholars, and no attempt has been made to achieve an uniform translation style. This was a deliberate dicision of the editor; the originals themselves exhibit great diversity and it was hoped that at least an impression of that richness might be conveyed by the strikingly different translations that each scholar has made. The freedom of the translators included the choice of adding footnotes or incorporating necessary background information into the text. The originals themselves exhibit the same wide range of tone, from scholarly and erudite to popular and easily accessible. Several translators kept to the propular vein; others have added notes that will be of great interest to specialists as well as general readers. These translations offer only a brief glimpse into what is an enormous body of literature, and the availability of these stories in English will help stimulate interest in this warm and lively literature. As such Dr. Granoff deserves our greetings for editing this treasury, so well. And this should surely inspire veteran scholars in India to take up a similar project on a bigger scale, incorporating many more tales and covering a wider field. N.M.K.
Materials for an Edition and Study of the Pinda- and Oha-Niijuttis of the Svetambara Jain Tradition by Willem B. Bollee. Beitrage zur Sudasienforschung, Sudasien-Institut, Universitat Heidelberg, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, 1991, pp. xv + 160.
According to tradition, the Pinda-nijjutti and the Oha-nijjutti were canonized at the Council of Valabhi in the 5th century of our era, They are, yet, not considered to belong to the old Siddhānta by Western Jainology, because, as Leumann pointed out, the former text originally followed the Āyāramga-Nijutti 315, where there is a gap now, whereas the lattwe, in an earlier version, had its place betwee Avassaya-Nijjutti VI and VII. They are, therefore considered to have been composed later than Bhadrabāhu's Nijjuttis, which
