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BRIEF NOTICES
N. M. Kansara Upadhyāya Yasovijaya Svādhyāya Grantha (Guj.), edited by Pradyumnavijay Gani, Jayant Kothari and Kantibhai B. Shah. Shri Mahavir Jain Vidyalay, Bombay, 1993, pp. 18 + 344, Rs. 150/-.
In memory of the completion in V. Sam. 2043) of the 300th year of the demise (kāladharma) of Upadhyāya Yasovijaya ( in V. Sam. 1743) who wrote more than 110 works and consequently earned the epithet of 'Laghu Haribhadrācārya' in the Jaina tradition, this book of the collection of research articles by scholars of Gujarat on different aspects of the works of Yašovijaya has been issued. It gives exhaustive account of various aspects of the scholarly personality of Yasovijaya Upadhyāya. The book opens with two photohraphs, one of them presenting his Carana-pādukā in the Samadhimandira in Dabhoi, near Vadodarā (Gujarat), and another one a facimile of his handwriting. The first four articles cover the biography and scholarly personality of the celebrity, while next thirty-seven give a detailed study, or treat some particular aspect of his particular work. The last one, 42nd comprises a bibliography listing 173 books presenting some or other of Yasovijays's works, 9 books about Yasovijaya and 10 articles about Yašovijaya published previously, all in Gujarati. N. M. K.
Mahavira-carita Mimamsa : Pürvārdha (Guj.) by Dalsukh Malavania. Ramesh Malavania, 8 Opera Society, Ahmedabad-380 007 India, 1992, pp. 136, Rs.36/
This book has its roots going back to more than twenty years, when, Pt. Malavania wrote down its essence in the form of a book published by the Saurashtra University, Rajkot, in 1972, with the title 'Prabhu Sri Mahavirsvāmi-no Jivana Sandesa'. The author then went on revising the contents and decided to present the material from the point of view of modern researchers, in the sequence of the later developments in the narration of the events of the life of Mahāvīra, the last Jaina Tīrthamkara.
The work is divided into several chapters like the following:
Tīrthankara-carita-ni Mātrkāo-num Müla, i.e., the Sources of the biographies of the Tirthamkaras (pp. 1-11); Bhagavāna Mahāvīra-nā Prācīna Varnako, i.e. Ancient Narratives about Mahāvīra (pp. 12-23); Pūrvabhavo, i.e., Past Births; Bh. Mahāvīranā Kalyānako, i.e., Auspicious Occasions of Mahavirs (pp. 53-54), Bh. Mahāvīranum Kūla, i.e. the geneology of Mahāvīra; Garbhāvatarana, i.e., descent in the embryo, and the consequent indicatory dreams seen by the mother of Mahāvīra; and so on upto his meeting with Gosālaka. The author has drawn upon all the Agamic sources and discussed in an orderly fashion each of the minute event as it developed at each successsive stage of narration from time to time with the composition of Cūrnis, Niryuktis, Tikās, Bhāsyas,
1 later texts, This book is in Gujarati, but it would be more widely useful to reearchers, if it is translated into English and Hindi, thus made available to wider national and international readership. N. M. K.
