Sramana 2012 07

Author(s): Shreeprakash Pandey
Publisher: Parshvanath Vidhyashram Varanasi

Page 6

From Chairman's desk
The cover picture of this issue depicts "The Candanabālā-Mahāvīra Episode" showing Chandanabālā, as a prisoner of Merchant Dhanavāha's wife Molā, offering alms to Lord Mahāvīra.
The episode is based on Lord Mahāvīra's a secret resolution (Abhigraha) to accept the food only from a slave girl imprisoned and in destitute state. Lord went for many days without food as He could not find such a woman offering food. Finally He saw Chandanabālā and accepted food from her. This secret resolution of Lord Mahāvīra was perhaps to highlight and eliminate the bad social practice of selling girls as slaves (dāsī). After Lord Mahāvīra attained omniscience, He named Candanabālā as the head of female-monks of His four fold congregation. About this edition I regrét delay in publishing this issue of Śramaņa due to some internal reorganizations and special assignments to Vidhyapeeth staff. This issue of śramaņa journal also is one month late due to engagement of the staff. In this issue, a special mention is to be made of the note prepared by Dr. Ashok Kumar Singh highlighting the contributions of various scholars to the success story of Šramaņa so far. To further enhance the utility of Šramaņa, we have planned to bring out four issues of śramaņa in 2013, each dedicated to a specific area of academic interest. The request note is attached at the end of the journal. I encourage the respected scholars to take advantage of this invitation and send their papers as early as possible.
Again I request you to please do send your comments on various papers presented in this use as well as suggestions to improve the quality of this journal.
Shugan C. Jain Chairman, Advisory Board, Śramaņa