समणसुत्तं SAMANASUTTAM
Hindi Granth Karyalay
ॐ ह्रीं श्रीपार्श्वनाथाय नमः
Auṃ Hrīṃ ŚrīPārśvanāthāya Namaḥ
Jay Jinendra
समणसुत्तं
SAMANASUTTAM
Jinendra Varni
2015 22 x 14 cm 276 pages Paperback [250 grammes]
₹ 110
The Jain faith is one of the oldest living faiths in the world. It has flourished in India since the most ancient times and has had a deep and lasting influence upon the philosophy, literature, history, and culture of India.
More than 2500 years after the 24th Jina, Tirthankara Mahavira attained nirvana, the Jains are a tiny but highly educated and wealthy community living mostly in India. Diaspora Jains are found everywhere in the world with the largest numbers in North America and Western Europe.
Over the millennia, Jains composed highly sophisticated texts in Prakrit and Sanskrit. They also wrote very impressively in Tamil, Kannada, Apabhramsha, Braj, Urdu, Persian, Marathi, Gujarati and several other languages. However, each tradition of Jainism wrote its own texts. There was no single representative text acceptable to all traditions.
Acarya Umasvati/Umasvami composed the Tattvarthasutra, in the early decades of the Common Era. But after it, no other text has found common acceptance with all the traditions of Jainism.
Vinoba Bhave, a preeminent figure of Independent India, ardently wanted the Jains to have a text commonly acceptable to all of them - just like the Hindus have the Shrimadbhagavadgita, the Muslims the Quran and the Christians the Bible. With this in mind, he asked an elite group of Jain ascetics representing all four sects to come together and create a text that would be wholly and unequivocally acceptable to all Jains. A text that they could put forward as a true representation of the teachings of the omniscient Jinas whom they worship. A text that would unite all of them into a single doctrinal and philosophical strand.
At his request, Kshullaka Jinendra Varni, the Jain ascetic and lexicographer, compiled 756 Prakrit verses from the Jain scriptures. These verses were a true depiction of the teachings of the Jinas.
Fearing that this compilation too would suffer from sectarian attitudes, Vinoba Bhave invited a synod of the most esteemed scholars from the Jain community to discuss this text and get their views on board. This synod was headed by four ascetics representing the four traditions of Jainism.
Muni Vidyananda - Digambara
Muni Janakavijaya - Shvetambara Murtipujaka
Muni Sushikumar - Shvetambara Sthanakavasi
Muni Nathmal - Shvetambara Terapantha
The four heads of the synod worked with Jinendra Varni and finalised this text. The Sanskrit Chhaya of this Prakrit text was composed by by Bechardas Doshi. The Hindi translation was carried out by Kailashchandra Shastri & Muni Nathmal.
The resulting text was validated by Acarya Tulsi, Acarya Dharmasagara, Acarya Deshabhushana and Acarya Vijayasamudra Suri. Many scholars, such as AN Upadhye, Darbarilal Kothiya, Dalsukh Malvania, Kamalchand Sogani and Hukumchand Bharill made valuable suggestions and contributions to this text. Jain ascetics like Amar Muni, Muni Santbal, Ananda Rishi, Muni Yashovijaya gave their whole-hearted support and encouragement to this great task.
Thus, Vinoba’s dream came to pass and Jains now had a text that was fully recognised by all Jain traditions.
I am immensely proud to present this text to you, my friends. It is available at my bookstore and through mail order.
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