Studies in Jainology Prakrit Literature and Languages

Author(s): B K Khadabadi
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 76

Studies in Jainology, Prakrit
SOME PROBLEMS OF TRANSLATING EARLY JAINA
TEXTS
Jaina works could be ancient, or pre-medieval, carly medieval and later ones. They also could be mainly in Prakrit and Sanskrit. Translating these works in English, an act which must precede serious Jinistic studies, has to face several problems. I shall here prefer to restrict discussion to the problems of translating into English the carly Prakrit texts, namely canonical, exegetical and other cognate works.
The history of translation of carly Jaina Prakrt texts into English, unlike that of the Samskrit and Pali ones, is neither far long nor far wide. Hermann Jacobi's English translation of the Acāranga-sūtra nad the Kalpa-sūtra (Sacred books of the East, Vol.XXII, 1884) and next of the Uttaradhyayana- sutra and the Sūtrakrtanga (S.B.E.Vol.XVL, 1895) can be said to be the pioneering and systematically planned work in this field. Thereafter the translations of carly Jaina Prakrt texts - some complete, some in part and some in contextual form, - have been produced now and
then by forcign' and Indian scholars, the recent notable attempts • being by scholars like Taiken Honaki and K.C.Lalwani. In between
Jacobi and the last- noted two scholars stand those like Hoernle,
Barnett, Schubring, K.V.Abhyankar, A.N.Upadhye, H.B.Gandhi,