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How the Project was born and Took Shape
It was seven years back that we had approached Shri Shrenikbhai Sheth Chairman, Shri Jain Swetambar Murtipuiak Boarding Trust, Ahmedabad with a proposal of preparing and bringing out in English translation a few collections of representative illustrative stories from the Jain literature in Prakrit language, In spite of the fact that the Prakrit narrative literature is the richest among world literatures, it is poorly known to the people at large. What is available in English is very meagre. Shrenikbhai gave a very enthusiastic response. Accordingly the Prakrit Text Society undertook, with the financial assistance from S.S.M.J.B. Trust to get prepared a treasury of select Jain Tales.
For this purpose we approached Prof. V.M.Kulkarni, whose boundless love for Prakrit literature, we are quite confident, would not allow him to hesitate in accepting our request to work as the editor of the project. Prof. Kulkarni prepared a detailed plan for the work. During his work on the project, he had to face numerous difficulties: inaccessibility of many source books, near-unavailability of assisting translators from Prakrit to English, daunting health troubles, etc. His determination and heroic perseverance, however, have succeeded at long last in completing the present volume of the Treasury of Jain Tales which, no doubt can be looked upon as another gem in the crown of his scholarly achievements. The manuscript of the volume was ready in 1991 and we handed it over to the S.S.M.J.B. Trust to arrange for its publication. The credit for the few illustrations that highlight key situations in some stories goes to Shrenikbhai's perceptive suggestions. It is earnestly hoped that scholar and lover of Indian Classical literatures will appreciate and find instructive the stories presented here.
We on behalf of Prakrit Text Society lack sufficient words to thank Prof. Kulkarni. We express our sincere thanks to scholars who co-operated with him in this undertaking. We are also thankful to S.S.M.J.B. Trust for financing the project, Shri Sharadaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre for publishing the volume and various institutions including the L.D. Institute of Indology which provided library facilities. Dalsukh Malvania
H. C. Bhayani, Secretary
President Prakrit Text Society Ahmedabad
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