Tiloy Pannati Part 1

Author(s): Vrushabhacharya, A N Upadhye, Hiralal Jain
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur

Page 9

for various reasons: First, the subject-matter of TP is often obscure; it has no special attraction excepting for a specialist of dogged perseverence; and consequently the studies in this branch are just in their infancy. Secondly, TP belongs to a branch of literature which is poorly represented in the galaxy of Jaina works. Though Kirfel has given a consolidated and systematic exposition of Jaina cosmography, the individual texts like the Surapannatti, Jambuddivapannatti and Candapannatti of the Ardhamagadhi canon, Tiloyagara of Nemicandra, Lokavibhaga of Simbasuri, Jam. budvipaprajnapti of Padmanandi, Trailokyadipika of Indravamadeva, Trailokyaprajnapti of Subhacandra, etc., are not studied exhaustively for themselves and in comparison with others of the same contents. Thirdly, TP is being edited with Hindi rendering for the first time; the Ms. material is not quite satisfactory; and no help was available to the editors in the form of a Sanskrit commentary, a Ch aya or marginal glosses etc. in the absence of which the humble editors had to struggle hard with this imperfect material even to restore a readable and reliable text. Lastly, the Prakrit language presents, in the absence of good Ms. material, manifold difficulties to a conscientious editor.
Quite aware as they are of the standards of Text-criticism, the editors do not claim that the text of TP, presented here, is critical in the strict sense of the term; but they are justified in saying that it is quite authentic within the limits of the material used by them. A critical text can be constituted only after all the available Mss. are collated, classified and evaluated. The two Msg. Da and Ba, being sufficiently independent, many of the scribal errors could be easily eliminated. In orthography and such other details, a standardised appearance has been given to the text. The editors have been quite vigilant about the dialectal differences in Prakrit or Middle Indo-Aryan; and as a rule they have followed the readings of the M88. without forcing them to agree with some or the other later grammatical standard. More than once uncertain words and forms have been veri. fied in the light of the material presented in the Grammatik der Prakrit Sprachen by Pischel (Strassburg 1900, and also its Index published in the volumes of Indian Antiquary ) and the Pajasaddamahannavo of H. T. Seth ( Caloutta Sam. 1985). Dialectal traits are meticulously preserved when both the M8s. agreed, not minding whether later Prakrit grammars approved of them or not. In short, the editors have shown maximum possible fidelity to the Mss., and faithful and intelligent record of the text tradition, as presented by the M88., has been their guiding principle throughout. Almost as a preliminary experiment, a portion of the text was edited by one of the editors, (Tiloya-pannatti by Yativraabha, part 1, ed. Dr. A. N. Upadhye, Jaina Siddhanta Bhavan, Arrab, 1941.); and important editorial results were achieved by Prof. Hiralal who is working as the Chief Editor of the Dhavala of which five volumes have been already isgued Both of them felt that the text is corrupt in many places in both the Mgs., that such works could be published but once in their life time, and that they have to attend not only to the needs of linguists and text-critics but also to the wants of pious readers, who would handle this work mainly for its contents and whose number is likely to be sufficiently large. These considerations led them to offer certain emendations which are not claimed to be any improvement on the text