Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 6

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 6

FOREWORD
The Trişașțiśalākāpuruşacaritra of Ācārya Hemacandra is an encyclopaedia in Sanskrit of Jaina Mythology and a great store-house of legends, traditions, stories, anecdotes, and what not. It also shows the great savant as a remarkable poet ; its Titerary medium has its own peculiarities which would be of interest to students of Sanskrit literature as well as of language ; and rich cultural data supplied by it is of immense value for a study of cultural conditions of mediaeval India in general and Gujarat in particular. (An illustrative study of the Trişașțiśalākāpuruşacaritra from these various points of view was presented by Mr. J. P. Thaker in a paper which was published in the Journal of the Oriental Institute, Vol. IV, nos. 2-3, 1954-55). It is apparent that Hemacandra
ized all the Jaina literature Canonical and otherwise—that was known in his times while composing the Trişaşțiśalākāpuruşacaritra, and its value is all the more enhanced because some of Hemacandra's sources are not extant now or are comparatively less known so far.
A Gujarati translation of the Trişaştiśalākāpuruşacaritra was published many years back by the Jaina Dharma Prasāraka Sabhā of Bhavnagar. But an English translation of such an important text was a desideratum, and it is a matter of satisfaction that with the publication of the present volume the English translation is brought to completion after a long time. The first volume was published in 1931, and the last two volumes—fifth and sixth-are brought out in 1962.
Dr. Helen M. Johnson has done the whole translation with remarkable scholarship, industry and perseverance, and for completing the last two volumes she has come to Baroda and worked in the Oriental Institute for about two years. But for her recent sojourn in India the work would have taken a still longer time.