Kartikeyanupreksha

SR No.: 002713
Original Sutra Author: Swami Kumar
Author: A N Upadhye, Kailashchandra Shastri
Publisher: Paramshrut Prabhavak Mandal
Publication Year: 2005
Total Pages: 594
Language: Hindi, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari, Religion, & Spiritual
File Size: 15 MB

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INTRODUCTION
cient compendium of Jaina doctrines. The range of Jaina dogmatics covered by Kumara is already outlined above. It was necessary for any commentator to elaborate all these details and more pointedly in a Sanskrit commentary because the original text is in Prakrit. Subhacandra, it must be admitted, did rise to the occasion, drew upon various works on Jainism in Prakrit and Sanskrit, and made his exposition. as exhaustive as possible. Besides the sources bodily reproduced by him in his Commentary, he quotes verses after verses from works like the Śravakācāra of Vasunandi and Jñānārṇava of Subhacandra. A well-digested exposition of these topics would have been more welcome, but Subhacandra, perhaps consciously, has made his commentary a source book of additional details, quite helpful in understanding the text of Kumāra. When Jayacandra wrote his Hindi Vacanikā1 mainly following Subhacandra's Vṛtti, not only his Vacanika became popular by the wealth of its contents but also went to a very great extent to earn more popularity for the work of Kumāra.
v) Śubhacandra as an Author and Religious Teacher
Subhacandra was a Bhaṭṭāraka who, in his age, had specific duties such as i) consecrating (pratisthapana) temples and images constructed by rich and pious laymen, ii) conducting rituals of various kinds, and lastly iii) guiding and instructing the laity in all social matters and religious knowledge. Subhacandra is one of those few Bhaṭṭārakas who has left to posterity a large number of works on various subjects. He is a zealous writer. There is more of popularity and profusion than profundity and compactness in his works. He is well read. The works quoted by him in his commentary on the K.- Anuprekṣa show that he had covered by his study most of the important works of the Digambara school. He is out to produce useful expositions rather than well-digested and original compositions.
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Subhacandra's Sanskrit expression, particularly in this commentary, shows a good deal of looseness and popular elements, quite inevitable in the age in which he lived and pursued his literary activities. His early training might not have been rigorous, and some of the Bhaṭṭārakas of his age wrote
1) This is published in PANNALAL BAKALIVAL's ed. of K.-Anuprekṣa (Bombay 1904). Jayacandra is a voluminous Hindi commentator who has written Hindi Vacanikas on some 13 works. He was a resident of Jaipur. He completed his Vaccanika on the K.-Anuprekṣā in Sam 1863 (-57) A. D. 1806. His Vacanikas on the Sarvärthasiddhi, Samayasara etc. are well-known (See Jaina Hitaisi, XIII, p. 22).
2) V. P. JOHARAPURKAE: Bhaṭṭāraka Sampradaya. Here is an useful study of the Bhaṭṭaraka institution.