Trisastisalakapurusacaritra (Set of 3 Volumes)

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The plan to translate and annotate the whole of the Trisastisalakapuruşacaritra, of which the Adisvaracaritra is the first book, evolved from the original intention to translate the Mahaviracaritra. This seemed of sufficient interest to justify the translation of the whole. Its accomplishment was facilitated by a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

This translation was made from the edition of the AdiSvaracaritra published by the Jainadharmaprasarak Sabha, Bhavnagar, in 1905. While making the translation, I found so many errors in the text that it was necessary to really reedit it before translating. For this I consulted five MSS: one from the Jñana Mandir, Baroda; one from the Oriental Institute, Baroda; one from the Bhandarkar Institute, Poona; and two from a Jain library in Bhavnagar. I have also had some readings from a manuscript in the Sanghana Bhandar, Pattan, and from one at Cambay.

I have attempted throughout to make the subject matter clear to a reader who has no knowledge of Sanskrit, but may be interested in Jainism, or fiction in general. I have, therefore, included a number of notes which are superfluous to the Sanskritist, or one who knows India well. The technical notes and appendices are, of course, intended for the specialist.

Like the majority of Jain texts, the work is rich in new linguistic material. I have included a list of new and rare words, which is sufficient to indicate the material for those interested in that field.

Every technical point has been discussed with adhus both with reference to agama authority and actual practice. Therein lay the difficulty of the work, as the number of persons able to expound Jainism is very limited.

JOHNSON, Helen Moore. Saint Clair, Franklin County, Missouri (?) 14.10.1889 Osceola, Mo. 26.6.1967. U.S. Indologist, a Specialist of Jainism. Birth place from geni.com, some say she was born in Osceola, Montana. Daughter of Thomas Moore J. and Alice Jackson. Studies at University of Missouri in Columbia, Mo. (A.B. 1907, M.A. 1908). Then 1908-09 at Tulane University in New Orleans and 1909-10 at Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania, further studies of Greek and Sanskrit. Ph.D. 1912 University of Wisconsin in Madison. In 1912-13 Assistant and 1913-16 Professor of Foreign Languages at Oklahoma College for Women in Chikasha. In 1916-18 further studies of Sanskrit under Bloomfield at Johns Hopkins (1917-18 Phi-Beta-Kappa Scholar there). In 1918- 19 Reader in Spanish in Postal Censorship, in 1919-20 Professor of Latin and Greek at Oxford College for Women in Oxford, Ohio. In 1920-21 Alice Freeman Palmer Fellow in India. In 1924- 36 Johnston Scholar at Johns Hopkins. In 1927-29 Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow in India, where she apparently remained until 1931. Spent the rest of her life as free scholar in Osceola, Montana. Again in India in 1947-49 and 1960-62. Died of an illness in the age of 78. Unmarried.

The life-work of Johnson was the English translation of Hemacandra's great hagiographical work Trisastisalakāpuruşacaritra in six volumes, each over 400 pages. She began the work during her first travel f India and later visited India several times in order to consult pandits and to see her volumes through the press.

The plan to translate and annotate the whole of the Trisastisalakapuruşacaritra, of which the Adiévara- caritra is the first book, evolved from the original inten- tion to translate the Mahaviracaritra. This seemed of sufficient interest to justify the translation of the whole. Its accomplishment was facilitated by a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

This translation was made from the edition of the Adi- Svaracaritra published by the Jainadharmaprasarak Sabha, Bhavnagar, in 1905. While making the translation, I found so many errors in the text that it was necessary to really reedit it before translating. For this I consulted five MSS: one from the Jñana Mandir, Baroda; one from the Oriental Institute, Baroda; one from the Bhandarkar Institute, Poona; and two from a Jain library in Bhav- nagar. I have also had some readings from a manuscript in the Sanghana Bhandar, Pattan, and from one at Cambay.

I have attempted throughout to make the subject matter clear to a reader who has no knowledge of Sanskrit, but may be interested in Jainism, or fiction in general. I have, therefore, included a number of notes which are superfluous to the Sanskritist, or one who knows India. well. The technical notes and appendices are, of course, intended for the specialist.

Like the majority of Jain texts, the work is rich in new linguistic material. I have included a list of new and rare words, which is sufficient to indicate the material for those interested in that field.

Every technical point has been discussed with "dhus, both with reference to agama authority and actual prac- tice. Therein lay the difficulty of the work, as the num- ber of persons able to expound Jainism is very limited.

**Contents and Sample Pages**