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the royal seal on. A document without the royal seal has no value. Similarly, the sūtra without meaning i.e. explanation) has no value.8 According to Ac. Jinabhadra the definition of niyoga is : niyato va nicchito vā adhio va jogo mato niogo tti /
gathā, 1417 Here the prefix (upasarga) 'ni' has been interpreted in two senses : (1) definite (2) more extensive. Bhāṣā has been explained in the Brhatkalpa as follows: padisaddagassa sarisam jo bhāsai atthamegu suttassa /
gāthā, 196 That is, Bhāsā is just like an echo which reverberates in the cave of a mountain when one loudly shouts seated inside. This means that Bhāṣā brings out only one meaning which strictly follows the words of the sūtra.
Ac. Malayagiri has given the following instances of Bhāṣā :
“samabhāvaḥ samāyikam / dvābhyām bubhukṣayā trsā ca" galito balaḥ / pātät dinaḥ-palāyitah panditah, athava panda buddhiḥ så sañjātā'syeti panditah / sādhayati mokşamårgam iti sādhuḥ / yatate sarvātmanā samyamānuşthāneşv:
iti yatiḥ /” (Bịhatkalpa, gathā 196) The term bäla interpreted in the above passage is prākrtabi tāla = bāla; the rest are uniform in Sanskrit as well as in Prākrit. But Āc. Jinabhadra defines bhāṣà as follows : bhāsă vattā vāyā suyavattībhävamittayam sã ya /
Višesā., 1418 We explain what this definition means. The lucid transparent language is called bhāṣā. Hence, that type of commentary which simply gives a word by word explanation without any discussion or exposition is recognised as bhäşă. Therein the sūtra is not fully expounded. This function is assigned to vibhāṣā and vārtika.
The nature of vibhāsā is explained in the BỊhatkalpa which observes :
"egapae u dugãi jo atthe bhaņai să vibhäsă u." This means that the type of commentary which gives all the possible etymological meanings of a pada is called vibhāṣā. For example, the prāksta term āsa (Sk. aśva) is etymologically explained in the Vibhāṣā as follows: "asai ya āsu ya dhāvai na ya sammai tena aso u" (Br.,
8. Brhatkalpa, gathā 195
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