Harmless Soul

SR No.: 001196
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: W J Johnson, Dayanand Bhargav
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1995
Total Pages: 372
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Philosophy, & Principle
File Size: 20 MB

Page 110

96 Harmless Souls Buddhist one. This alone might make one wonder how early parts of the Samayasāra can be dated. And a close examination reveals that this two truths doctrine is utilised in the Samayasāra in two different and ultimately conflicting ways - a clear enough indication that we are dealing with a composite text. In other words, the text as we have it has been subject to substantial modification and addition, probably as a result of non-Jaina philosophical influences.
This leaves as open questions the identity and date of the 'original' Kundakunda. But even if it were possible to answer these, it is unlikely that our understanding of the texts as we have them now would be significantly advanced. Moreover, my purpose here is to chart a particular development within Jaina thought and religion, and to define its practical limits. And for that project a cursory inspection of the Pravacanasāra and the Samayasāra shows that they are related within the same broad tradition, and so may be fruitfully examined in tandem regardless of specific authorship. Nevertheless, within that context, it is important to bear in mind the above problems and to assess each work, and even to some extent each gāthā, individually. As Upadhye admits, 'the compilatory character of Kundakunda's works nullifies the criterion whether a gāthā fits a particular context or not'. 26 He goes on to say that the available manuscripts are all accompanied by various commentaries and so are already 'under the bias' of particular commentators.27 In this respect, I shall refer in particular to the first extant commentaries on the Pravacanasāra (the Tattvadīpikā) and the Samayasāra (the Atmakhyāti), both by Amrtacandra, who is tentatively dated by Upadhye to the end of the tenth century C.E.28 I shall also occasionally refer to Jayasena's
26 Upadhye p. 1.
27 Ibid. p. li.
28 Ibid. pp. c-ci. Cf. R. Williams 1963, p. 24, and F.W. Thomas, intro, to Faddegon [Kundakunda (3)], p. xxiv, for other possibilities.