Pravachanasara

SR No.: 003289
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A N Upadhye
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram
Publication Year: 1964
Total Pages: 612
Language: Hindi, Sanskrit
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 16 MB

Page 73

Pravacanasāra
CRITICAL REMARKS ON NIYAMASĀRA.-That Kundakunda is the author of Niyamasāra is accepted on the authority of Padmaprabha, the only known commentator of that work. The discussion of subject matter is quite worthy of Kundakunda, and the whole atmosphere is quite in tune with other works of his. The exposition of the subject matter is very systematic, leaving aside some traditional verses here and there, as it would be clear from my analysis. For the division of the text into 12 srutaskandhas, Padmaprabhadeva, the commentator, is responsible; with all due deference to his high-flowing spiritual muse I must say that this division has no sanction from the original text, nor does it facilitate the understanding of the text in any way; the author, it appears, never intended to have any divisions in his work. The composite character of the text, when read in the original, immediately impresses a reader; and in this respect it stands in contrast to Bhā vapāhuda. This work contains some traditional gāthās which are found in his other works, and also in Mülācāra. So far as I understand the discussion, Kundakunda's enumeration of Avasyakas is thus: Pratikramaņa, Pratyākhyāna, Ālocanā, Kāyotsarga, Sāmāyika and Paramabhakti; it is slightly different from the traditional enumeration1, wherein Alocanā is absent, being possibly included in Pratikramana which it precedes in actual performance, and in place of Paramabhakti we have Stuti and Vandanā. Kundakunda divides Paramabhakti into two types: nirvști and yoga-bhakti, wherein can be the traces of Stuti and Vandanā. Either Kundakunda did not want to stick to the traditional enumeration because he was discussing the subject from niscaya-naya, or he did not find any material difference between the two enumerations, or he incorporates, in this context, some early tradition. The phrase loya-vibhāgesu in gāthā 17 does not refer, as I understand it, to any individual text but to a class of literatute of Lokānuyoga group; while in gātha 94 the author decidedly refers to a text Pratikramana-sūtra by names.
PAMCATTHIYA-SAMGAHA or PANCĀSTIKA YASĀRA4: It is the devotion towards the doctrine that has goaded the author to produce this [p. 43:] book for the further propagation and glorification of the creed. He proposes to deliver a discourse on samaya; the contents are originally given out by Sramaņa (Mahāvīra), and they lead the follower to liberation (2); samaya is defined as the samavāya or collocation of five astikāyas, i.e., those entities that manifest, through numerous qualities and modes, their existence with extensive spatial points, viz., soul (jiva), matter (pudgala), principles of motion and rest (Dharma & Adharma) and space (Ākāsa),
1 Mülācāra I, 22. 2 Mulācāra VII, 121 ff. 3 Padikamana-nämadheye sutte jahā vannidam padikamanam / etc. 4 P. E. Pavolini: II compendio dei cinque elementi-Pamcatthiyasamgahasuttam in
Geornale della Societa asiatica italiana, vol. 14, pp. 1-40. Florence, 1901, with some remarks on the language, metre and MSS.: we get here the text edited with a summary of contents of each verse following Amstacandra's commentary; Ed. with Amộtacandra's Sk, and Pande Hemaräjaji's Hindi commentary in RJS, 1904; Ed. a second time with the addition of the Sk. commentary of Jayasena, RJS, 1914; Edited with an English translation, an original commentary in English and with philosophical and historical Introduction by Prof. A. Chakravarti in SBJ, Vol. III, Arrah, 1920; Edited with a Hindi rendering of Jayasena's Sk. commentary by Br. Shitalaprasadaji from Surat.