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Kalanidhi:
A Jaina Encyclopedia by Vaidyanatha
38
An unpublished work of an encyclopediac nature is being presented here. Its name is kalānidhi and the author is one Vaidyanatha. This work was composed sometime during the 11th-12th century AD and is the earliest known Marathi encyclopedia. The text is incomplete. It is well known that Marathi came into its own under the Yadavas. Literature of a philosophical nature like that of the Mahanubhavas or the Jñāneśvarī is wellknwon. Poetic works like the Rukminisvayamvara of Narendra etc. are also known. But a work of the encyclopedic nature of this type was unknown. Hence, it is important.
Dr. Usha Ranade
This manuscript was located in the Jaina Bhaṇḍāra in the Sanghavīno Pādo at Ahmedabad (Gujarat). It is written on palm leaf in the Devanagari script and I was able to get it through the courtesy of late Dr. U. P. Shah. The Bhāratīya Vidya Bhavan had undertaken its printing but for some reason, except a few pages, nothing was printed. Those remaining few pages were never published. Only two scholars have taken note of this work. The first one was Prof. Khanwelkar (1946) who thought that it was a narrative poem. The next one was Muni Jinavijayji. But beyond reproducing the section printed by the Bhārtīya Vidya Bhavan, this author has nothing to say.
The Sanskrit literature has a long tradition of such literature. The earlier of these are the puranas that give under the garb of mythological narrations and dynastic histories, details about so many things. To cite a few examples, we can take the "Chitrasutra", part of the Vishnudharmottara Purāņa of Hemadri, the prime minister of Ramachandra Yadava; "Chaturvargachintamani" and the "Manasollasa" of Someśvara of the Chalukya lineage. The Kalanidhi also presents a similar phenomenon.
Jain Education International
The topics handled by Vaidyanatha in Kalanidhi are really numerous and the variety is astonishing. The author gives detailed information and names of various sacrifices, the types
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