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ON BHADREŚVARA’S KAHĀVALĪ
As early as 1932, in his Introduction to the second edition of Hemacandra's Parisistaparvan published in Calcutta, H. Jacobi called attention to Bhadreśvara's Kahāvali (pp. V; XI-XIII). He emphasized that, among all the works dealing with the Jaina Universal History, obnly these two go beyond Mahāvīra, the 24th Tirthankara, and add accounts of the further patriarchs. In this respect, Bhadreśvara goes further than Hemacandra. Though he had at his disposal only one rotograph of a palm-manuscript, H. Jacobi was able to give a general appraisal of the Kahāvali and various information about the contents, arrangement and sources of the collected stories. But he considered that its << literary merits >> were less than those of Hemacandra's work.
Nowadays, more material is accessible, which is described below. Data concerning Bhadreśvara's spiritual - affiliation and dates are also discussed : it is not irrelevant to know whether he is fairly old, or, at least, prior to Hemacandra who became the standard-author. From the detailed analysis of the contents presented here, one will easily realise that the Kahāvalī is a huge narrative work, collecting elements from various literary traditions. This paper is intended as a help to further investigations (Ed.).
Mss of the Kahāvalī (Kathāvali)*
Br: The first mention of the ms. of Bhadreśvara's Kahāvali in Prakrit was made
by some unknown author of the Catalogue of mss called Br (hattipanikā)'. it records (No. 285) : 285 Kathāvalī-prathama-paricchedaḥ; Prā. (=Prakrit) Mu. (= mukhyatah) 24 Jina- 12 Cakry-ädi Haribhadra-sūri-paryanta-satpurusa-caritra-vācyo Bhadreśvarah 23800. << The first chapter of Bhadreśvara's work called Kathāvalī, mostly written in Prakrit, of 23800 ślokas (granthāgra) (gives the lives of the 24
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