Jaina Uddharana Kosa, vol 1.

• Author: Davis, Donald R.
• Position: Book review

Jaina Uddharana Kosa, vol. 1. Compiled and edited by KAMALESH KUMAR JAIN. Bhogilal Leherchand Series, no. 16. Delhi: MOTILAL BANARSIDASS, 2003. Pp. xli + 573. Rs. 2100.

The breadth and depth of the common intellectual heritage shared by ancient Indian literati is wonderfully demonstrated in this collection of quotations found in Jain texts and commentaries, both Sanskrit and Prakrit, from the fourth to the ninth centuries A.D. The compiler has culled all the quoted references from forty-nine Jain texts and commentaries ranging from Umasvati's Tattvarthadhigamasutra to the numerous works of Akalanka and Haribhadra to the canonical commentaries of Silanka. Altogether the works of twenty-one authors, as well as several works whose authorship is unknown, have been examined for this collection. The present work is the first volume of a projected three-volume series that will collect all the quotations in major Jain sources up to the nineteenth century.

The quotations are presented in alphabetical order based on the first word cited. Precise bibliographic details for each quotation are given both for the original source and the instance or instances where it is cited in early Jain literature. Thus, if a Jain text or commentary quotes, for example, the Manavadharmasastra, bibliographic reference is provided to both the location in the Jain text and in the original source. In many cases, multiple texts cite the same quotation and may cite both Sanskrit and Prakrit versions of the same verse or statement. A complete list of texts consulted and a full bibliography of both the Jain and original sources is supplied. Finally, variant readings are given both where two Jain sources cite a passage in slightly different versions or where a passage quoted in a Jain source differs somehow from the standard reading in an original source.

On the whole, this volume is a marvelous reference source for research on Indian intellectual history generally, but especially, of course, on the Jain tradition. The compiler has provided the academic world with a labor of love that illuminates the wide variety of texts read and used by early Jain authors. There are few major genres of Hindu or Buddhist literature that are not cited in these early Jain texts, including Vedic, Dharmasastra, epic, philosophical...