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Jaina scriptures have prescribed six necessary duties for a Jaina householder, which are: sämäyika, chaturvimashati stava,vandanaka, Pratikramana, käyotsarga and pratyäkhyäna.

Pratikramana is the central theme of these necessary duties as all the other five are included in it. It has been a tradition for Swetamber Jains all over the world to do Pratikramana several times a year. The most important being the Samvantsari Pratikramana on the last day of Paryushana when a lay person confesses and atones for the sins committed knowingly or unknowingly during the past year. However, as the sutras and the prayers which are recited during the Pratikramana are mostly in Sanskrit and Prakrit (Ardhmaghdhi), most devotees do not understand the exact meaning behind the sutras and prayers.

Excellent Gujarati and Hindi texts are available on this subject but I am not aware of any works in simple English. I must confess that I am not a scholar of Jain Religion and this is not a literary translation. It is my interpretation of the sutras and prayers after going through various texts on this subject written by scholars and very able writers. My purpose of writing this book is to give a simplified unconventional English translation to make it easy for an average reader to understand the meaning of the Pratikramana stotras.

This book “Exposition of Pratikramana Stotras” includes the original verses in Gujarati, with transliteration in English followed by as accurate as possible meaning and as clear as possible commentary of the verses. This book will be very helpful to the people who are familiar with the Pratikramana stotras but do not understand the original meanings as they are not well versed in Indian dialects.

My profound gratitude to my friend Dr.Vimal Prakash Jain, retired professor of Jaina Literature of University of Jabalpur at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh India for editing the manuscript and offering many valuable suggestions and comments. I am thankful to my niece and nephew Jyotsna and Sudhir Shah for encouragement and support whenever I needed and my friend Pranay Jain for showing lot of patient and help in preparing this manuscript ready for printing.

I am also very thankful to my friend Satish Shah for many valuable suggestions and comments.

The stotras and the prayers of Pratikramana are not easy to translate as many times there are no equivalent words in English. But I have tried my best to keep the translation as true to the context as possible. In view of this if I have unknowingly misinterpreted the meaning I ask for the forgiveness of the readers and if they have right suggestion to let me know which I can include in any future editions (micchami dukkadam).

Rati Dodhia
12 Mitris Blvd.
Lincoln RI 02865, USA

Link to PDF of book: Exposition of Pratikramana Stotras (PDF, 1mb)