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Introduction
17
Sțigaraprakūša and Tg. are identical except that the former reads al-JU-JITET in the place of TE FAT-30 in the latter.
This is a rare piece of evidence in support of the literary recognition of Tg. Moreover, some variants already evidenced by the commentator of Tg, and now supplemented by the variant we find in the Srngaraprakāśa citation establishes beyond doubt the currency and popularity of Tg, up to at least the eleventh century, even if we set aside what is known exclusively in the Jain tradition.
The photo-copy of the Ms. of Tg. was acquired by Late Dr. A. N. Upadhye with a view to editing the work and he had completed a tentative transcript of the same. Before however he could proceed further, he most unfortunately passed away. His sad demise removed from us the great doyen of Prakrit and Jain Studies. His vast, varied and profound contributions to those areas stand witness to a life fully and indefatiguably devoted to the scholarly pursuit of learning. The present work I offer as an humble homage to him.
I express my gratefulness to Shri Sundarpal A. Upadhye and Prof. Dalsukh Malvania for making available to me the photo-copy of the Tg. manuscript, and also to the Late Agarchand Nahata to whom the credit goes for bringing the Ms. of this invaluable work to light and making its photo-copy available. My thanks are also due to the Trustees of the Jinacāritra-süri MSS. collection of Bikaner for allowing me use of the Tārāyana MS. I thank the Prakrit Text Society for publishing this work, and bearing with the unusally long delay in completing it. The Tirhut Printers are to be thanked for their continous cooperation.
H. C. Bhayani
Ahmedabad 26th May 1987
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