________________
INTRODUCTION,
The Name and Origin of the Book
Gommațasára.
The probable reasons for the name Gommațasára having been assigned to this authoritative work on Jain Philosophy may be summed up as below.
In the Karma Kanda Gatha 965, the author says that this treatise is based on the discourses of Shri Vardhamána, the 24th and the last Jain Tirthankara of the present era in Bharata Kshetra, and the teachings are also well established by the rules of logic, Pramana and Naya. The author has called Shri Vardhamana or Mahávíra by the name of Gommaţadeva.
The word Gommata is probably derived from “ go" speech, and "mata" or "matha" abode, meaning "the Abode of Speech," the Lord from whom flows the letterless voice, the wonderful music. Divya-Dhvani. Sára means the essence, the condensed purport. The word Gommațasára would thus mean the “ Essence of the Discourses of Lord Mahavíra".
Again, we learn from the Samskrit commentary, that the treatise is a compilation of the answers given by the author Shri Nemi Chandra Siddhanta Chakravartí, to the questions put to him by Rájá Chámunda Raya, asking him to enumerate the sub-classes of bodymaking Karma, and to explain their existence, bondage, non-bondage, and cessation of bondage, with regard to the spiritual stages of
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
