The jaina Uddharana Kosa is an enormous project of which the first volume is before you. It is creditable for him to put in long hours of work continuously for years together for completing this first volume and is more so in the light of his courage and patience to take up the completion of the work on second and third volumes. With the tenacity that he has and the amount of intellectual labors that he is capable of putting in; the rest of the volumes of the Kosa will be completed in the coming years. He is now enjoying the status of Associate Professor (Research) at the Institute.
The value of this compilation is, indeed, incomparable. It has manifold purposes. First of all, these quotations will tell us what type of non-Jain texts were utilized by the Janis. In order to build an edifice of Jain thoughts and ideas, these quotations will help us to write the history of Jain philosophical ideas and concepts; and at the same time, these quotations will tell us how the intellectual development of a country was made as far as the academic disputes were concerned. It is only from the citations of the Jains that we can write the history of the development of Indian thoughts and ideas. It is seen from the Jaina Uddharana Koga that in order to authenticate their arguments the Jaina commentators quoted verses from the kosa, from the Upanisads and from some other philosophical texts to suit their purposes.
Secondly, these citations will serve the purpose of different variant readings of the verses of the texts. The dates of different commentators vary from the fourth to the ninth centuries A.D,, and the readings of the earlier passages as recorded by the Jain commentators in their respective texts were often found different from the texts as edited these days. This is evident when we look at the Jaina Uddharana Koga. We can see from these quotations how the readings of the texts were mutilated or twisted from generation to generation, how the scribal errors were perpetuated from hand to hand in course of manuscript copying, and how some of the spurious verses crept into the manuscripts from time immemorial.
Thirdly, these citations will also serve to explain the background of utilizing these quotations. It will act as a source material to write the social, political and cultural history of a country. These quotations will say under what circumstances, or under what philosophical disputes, these quotations gushed out in order to quiet or dampen the spirit of the then disputant populace. These quotations will also tell us under what circumstances the non-Jain ideas were criticized by the Jains and established their own. We all know how these quotations were evolved in order to pry into other scholars' opinions. These are some of the points which this Jaina Uddharana 16§a will supply to the scholarly world. I would rather congratulate Dr. Kamalesh Kumar Jain for undertaking such a project which has a far-reaching effect, and which, when completed in two, three or more volumes, will act as a stamp of Jain'scholarship. I also congratulate the authority of the Bhogilal Leherchand Institute of Indology for launching such a project for the benefit of the scholarly world.
I personally congratulate Professor Dr. Vimal Prakash Jain, the Director of the Institute, for quickening the volume - one through the press. Shri Narendra Prakash Jain, the Vice-Chairman and Shri Pratap Bhogilal, the Chairman of the Institute, are to be thanked for imbibing this project through this Institute. Professor M.A. Dhaky is to be congratulated for pioneering this project and Dr. Jitendra Babulal Shah, another Vice-Chairman of the Institute, for steering up the project for its completion. All these persons have kept their eyes open for this project throughout the years.
I shall be looking forward to seeing the other volumes come out in subsequent times.
When, I joined the Bhogilal Leherchand Institute of Indology [BLII] Delhi, in April 1994, this project was entrusted to me. Initially, the work on this project was started by Dr. Umesh Chandra Singh, the then Research Assistant of the BLII.
Since April 1994, I worked at the BLII, in the different capacities, such as Research Associate (from April 1994 to September 1996), Assistant Professor-cum-Dy. Director (from October 1996 to Sept. 1999), Assistant Professor (from October 1999 to Sept. 2002) and Associate Professor (from October 2002 to June 2005). As a Dy. Director, I performed, in absence of any Director, all the administrative and academic duties and works of the Institute, for one year, although the work on the project kept going throughout. As a result, the first volume of the Kosa was published in the year 2003 only.
As per the plan and programme, volume-two of the Kosa was supposed to be published by the year 2005, but because of my appointment as a lecturer at the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan (Deemed University Jaipur campus ) in June 2005, its publication got delayed.
The Jaina literature is enormous and pretty vast. At the same time, from the point of view of ancient history, it is very important too. In Jaina tradition, thousands of works or treatises from the ancient to modern period have been written on the different subjects of Indology. Lots of these are available to us today, but numerous works have been lost or misplaced. Of a number of these, we do not know even their names. Some portions of the lost or misplaced texts are available to us by way of Uddharanas or Udaharanas only - (I) sometimes with both the name of the original author and his work, (ii) sometimes with the name of the author or his work only, and (iii) most of the times without mentioning the name of the author and his work.
As mentioned above, this is the second part of the BLII's enormous project of the Jaina Uddharana Kota. Initially, it was planned that the entire collection (the project) of the Uddharanas (from the beginning to 18-19 centuries A.D.) would be published in several parts, in alphabetical order. But, while working on the project, it was realized that the project should be divided into and published in three stages and in several volumes. And finally, on completion of the project, the entire Uddharanas of all the volumes could again be rearranged in alphabetical sequence. Hence in this volume-two, the works published during 10th to 12th centuries A.D., have been included. At the same time, some left out works of the period covered in volume-one, have also been taken up in this volume-two, to supplement volume-one.
Present volume of the Kota-
In this volume-two, as volume-one, nearly eleven thousand (11286) passages and sentences from the commentaries written during 10th to 12th centuries A.D., have been alphabetically arranged in identical, abridged, amplified or adapted form as they appear in the concerned text.
The commentaries draw upon themselves by way of the Uddharanas in order to illustrate and explain the purport of the texts.
The present volume is mainly divided into three parts - (1) Introduction, (2) Uddharanas and (3) indices.
Introduction-
The introduction mainly deals with the following points - background of the project, name of the Kota, need of this project, aims, objectives and importance, nature and scope of the Kota, commentarial literature and its importance, plan of presentation of the Kota, method of presentation of the Uddharana-material, meaning of the Uddharana, history of the Uddharanas, quoted, manner of the Uddharanas found in the commentaries, classification of the cited Uddharanas ( passages), pratika-Uddharanas, variants, alphabetical order etc.
I may add here that basically the introduction was prepared at the time of printing of volume-one. But due to some reasons it could not be included in volume-one. After making some alteration here and there, it has been produced here in this volume-two.
Abbreviations-
Details of abbreviated forms used in the first and second volumes, have been arranged in the respective list. They are of two types : (i) there are some general abbreviations like other abbreviations used for texts under reference.
Indices - Like volume-one, the text is followed by five very useful indices (parigistas). Index-I, gives a chronology of the authors and works consulted. In index-II, a list of authors involved in this volume, has been provided. Index - III, furnishes a list of works used, in index-IV, a list of grammatical uddharanas has been given. And finally in index-V, a bibliography of the works cited and those under reference for volume-two, has been annexed.
Printing of the Kosa-
The Uddharanas are numbered continuously and the Uddharana text is bold. The serial no. of the Uddharanas, references, variants, sources and remarks, if any, have been put in normal type. In the beginning of the pages, like a dictionary, captions have been indicated. Suggested readings in place of incorrect readings, have also been mentioned in square brackets [ ].
I have made an attempt to trace these quotations to their original sources. In many cases in this trying task, critical editions of such type of works have proved very helpful. Heartfelt thanks are due to their editors. At the end of every quotation, a bracket, if any, is placed and the name(s) of the wort(s) are entered therein. Absence of any bracket indicates that I did not succeed in tracing the original work by the time of its printing. I hope that where there is no such bracket, it will be handy to scholars in entering the original or secondary reference(s) whenever they are traced.
In the matter of the presentation of the text, I have faithfully followed the printed text only. For a comparative study of these, we have noted the sources wherever possible.
As far as I know, the Uddharanas in particular work or some selected works have been collected but the entire range of works of commentaries and like has not been explored from this point of view. This is perhaps for the first time that a work of such nature on the particular stream has been attempted.
In fact, to carry on such a work is difficult. The nature of work is such that it demands a lot of patience, long and sustained labor. Actually, such a work requires a team of scholars while this work is being pursued almost single-handed.
On completion of all the volumes, it is planned to prepare a subject-index of the Uddharana Kosa as well as its Hindi translation.
I hope, the amount of labor and time needed for future scholars in this direction will substantially be reduced and lightened by this work and I have no doubt that philologists, lexicographers, historians and students of Philosophy alike will welcome its publication.
The Jaina literature is an integral and important part of Indian literature. The Jaina teachers (dcaryas) and authors have richly contributed to the various branches of Indian literature, in different times - ancient, medieval and modern, through various languages - Sanskrit, Prakrit, Apabhrarnia, Kannada, Tamila, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi etc.
The Jaina teachers and authors have adopted a large number of Uddharanas (the citations) in the context of their writings. These Uddharanas have been cited in the exposition of Jaina Religion, dogmatics, philosophy, logic, ontology, mythology, ethics and other branches of literature for clarification, explanation, justification or illustration etc.
Hence thousands of Uddharanas from the Vedic and allied literature, the Buddhist canon (pitaka) and Buddhist logic, the Jaina canonical, ethico-religious, logical, grammatical works and other branches of the whole of Indian literature, have been quoted profusely.
Name of the Kosa -
On the basis of the subject-matter, the nature of the work and its presentation, it has been named as the Jaina Uddharana Kosa.
Need of the Project -
In the last two centuries, Jaina literature has been studied by the students of comparative Religion and Philosophy, History, Arts and other relevant subjects. Secondly, the Jaina contribution to humanisticism is being valued on a universal plane. Thirdly, the methods of study are fast undergoing change, and the horizon of learning is also expanding day by day.
Hence the need for Bibliographies, Source-books and Reference-works, is being given some importance by learned scholars, teachers and research scholars at every stage in the kola of their studies. This project on Jaina Uddharana Kota has been undertaken to fulfil the needs of researchers to some extent.
Aims, objectives and importance-
The purpose of this Kaa has been to bring together, all the passages (verses as well as sentences) quoted in the existing Jaina commentaries and other Jaina texts in the alphabetical order. It registers also the variant readings of the Uddharanas. Hence it will prove to be a useful tool for future editors of the Vedic and Buddhist texts in general and the Jaina texts in particular.
The Uddharanas thus collected here from multiple sources open up new fields of investigation and research in -
1) an assessment of the contribution of a particular commentator to the interpretation of the concerned text from where the Uddharanas have been taken;
2) fixing up the chronology of ancient / medieval Indian authors / books in general, and the Jaina authors and works in particular; and
3) the correction or modification of the original text and also give a clue to the existence of authors / texts not found today.
Nature and scope of this Kosa-
The range of the Jaina literature is pretty vast. Several hundred commentaries and other independent treatises were written and are fortunately still available. But, the present work is an endeavour to bring together all the Uddharanas available in the commentarial Jaina writings in a systematic way as a book of references. However, the entire project covers the range of commentaries and other Jaina texts from the 4th to 19th centuries A.D.
The Project has been tentatively divided into three stages as under -
(i) Volume -one (from 4th to 9th centuries A.D.);
(ii) Volume -two (from 10th to 12th centuries A.D.); and
(iii) Volume -three (from 13th century onwards).
I should mention here that on the basis of collected material, division of the volumes can be rearranged or modified.
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