Universal Values of Prakrit Texts

Author(s): Prem Suman Jain
Publisher: Bahubali Prakrit Vidyapeeth and Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan

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III
Research Papers
5. MANUSCRIPT PUZZLES
The example of Raidhu's Jasaharacariu
1. Manuscripts of Digambara works in European collections.
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When the European indologists of the 19" century discovered the wealth of manuscripts that had been copied along the centuries by the Jains, and were keen on procuring some for the European libraries, they generally focused more on those from Western India, for practical as well as for intellectual reasons. Search for manuscripts was specially well organized in this area and the scholars' primary interest was more in the Svetambara than in the Digambara tradition, also because Svetambara (Mürtipüjak) communities were almost the only ones visible in India itself at that time. The result is that Śvetambara works are much more widely represented in the German, French, British, Austrian and Italian collections (on which see Balbir et alii 2006) than Digambara ones. Among the latter, which, indeed, entered these libraries, though in small numbers, works in Sanskrit are prevalent: classics such as Padmanandin's Pañcavimśati, purāṇas and caritas by Sakalakirti
-Prof. Dr. Nalini Balbir, Paris
* Personal note: I had known Prof. Raja Ram Jain for some 20 years through the editions and Hindi translations of Raidhu's works he has procured and through his magisterial study written in Hindi (1974) on the 15th century Apabhramsa poet of Gwalior. Prof. Raja Ram Jain proved very helpful to me when I became first interested in one of Raidhu's short poems (Balbir 1988). On his side, he has been kind enough to acknowledge my help in securing for him a photocopy of the Strasbourg manuscript of Raidhu's Sirivṛlacariu, a work of which he had no manuscript at all (Jain 2007: 77 and 2010: (1)). The study of the London manuscript described here has again taken me to Prof. Jain's works. Under these circumstances, it was a great pleasure to come to know him personally on the occassion of the Conference "Jainism through the Ages" organized in Mysore (6-10 October 2010) and of the International Prakrit Seminar on Universal Values of Ancient Prakrit Texts which took place in Shravanabelagola (12th-13th October 2010). It was indeed a great honour to be associated with him in the International Prakrit Bharati Award Function at Shravana Belgola on 14th October 2010. I dedicate this humble study to him, as a token of great respect and admiration for deep and pioneering scholarship. May this preliminary article encourage a common project: the publication of the edition and translation of Raidhu's Jasaharacariu with paintings from the manuscripts!
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