Study of Tattvarthasutra with Bhasya

SR No.: 001578
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Suzuko Ohira
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1982
Total Pages: 196
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Tattvartha Sutra, Philosophy, Tattvartha Sutra, & Tattvarth
File Size: 13 MB

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Sec. 4. HISTORICAL POSITION OF THE T. S.
was thus able to achieve his aim of composing the standard text for the Jainas, which in quality and value falls behind none of the other schools. The existence of these non-Jaina texts thus played an important role for the birth of the T. S., which would not have been derived immediately from the semi-systematized canopical works of the later age alone. The Agamic texts he used were obviously the Mathurā versions which came to be soon penned down in the Third Valabhi Council.
As the migration of the Jaina communities was still on the way in the middle of the 5th century, the T. S. must have been carried by the emigrants and dissemi. nated to the places of migration soon after it was completed. Bhadrabāhu II immediately reacted to some problems raised in the T. S., and the scholastic information as such likely reached quickly the academic circles diffused in various places. Due to the mobility of the Jaina sanghas in this age, the events occurred in one place must have spread to the others in a good speed. And by the time of the Third Canonical Council at Valabhi, the geography of the Jainas was largely divided in the South and the West,
In the sequel of the schism, the Southern Jainas had to face to compile their own pro-canonical texts. Under the circumstances, the T. S. evidently came to the focus of the Southern scholars' attention as the first-hand source book of Jainism in the capacity of the later Āgamic texts which they refused to accept. It therefore had to go through a revision in order to meet the quality to be a pro-canonical text, upon which the Sarvärthasiddhi was composed from the Digambara point of view. The pro-canonical authors drew their materials from the Āgamic stock which excludes the later canonical texts authorized in the West and which includes the Kaşayaprābhrta, T. S, Nityuktis, etc. The T. S. thus stood as one of the fundamental sources for the composition of the pro-canonical works, and the revised version of the T. S. came to stand in the position of the standard work of Jainism since the beginning stage of the literary activities in the South. The categorical concepts established by Umāsvāti thus came to be generally received and standardized. Many Digambara authors early adopted to write in Sanskrit in the form of Prakarana often accompanied by a svopajñabhäşya after the model of the T. S., of which form was obviously more suitable for the purpose of composing the pro-canonical texts, and of which language was not only the need of the days but also effective in showing the point of departure from the practice in the West.
Pujyapāda revised T. S. at the beginning of the 6th century A.D., however it is difficult to say anything definite about it without a thorough study regarding the relative chronology of the pro-canonical authors involving Pujyapāda. Kundakunda's Dame makes its appearance in the inscriptions in the late 11th century, i. e., 1075 A.D. (Śaka 997)201 onwards, even though Kundakundänvaya is recorded in 466 A. D. (Śaka 388) in Merkara copper-plate, of which script is however said to belong
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